Comparison of satellite-derived land surface temperature and air temperature from meteorological stations on the Pan-Arctic scale

Satellite-based temperature measurements are an important indicator for global climate change studies over large areas. Records from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and (Advanced) Along Track Scanning Radiometer ((A)ATSR) are providing long-term time series information. Assessing the quality of remote sensing-based temperature measurements provides feedback to the climate modeling community and other users by identifying agreements and discrepancies when compared to temperature records from meteorological stations. This paper presents a comparison of state-of-the-art remote sensing-based land surface temperature data with air temperature measurements from meteorological stations on a pan-arctic scale (north of 60° latitude). Within this study, we compared land surface temperature products from (A)ATSR, MODIS and AVHRR with an in situ air temperature (Tair) database provided by the National Climate Data Center (NCDC). Despite analyzing the whole acquisition time period of each land surface temperature product, we focused on the inter-annual variability comparing land surface temperature (LST) and air temperature for the overlapping time period of the remote sensing data (2000–2005). In addition, land cover information was included in the evaluation approach by using GLC2000. MODIS has been identified as having the highest agreement in comparison to air temperature records. The time series of (A)ATSR is highly variable, whereas inconsistencies in land surface temperature data from AVHRR have been found

A physics-constrained machine learning method for mapping gapless land surface temperature

More accurate, spatio-temporally, and physically consistent LST estimation has been a main interest in Earth system research. Developing physics-driven mechanism models and data-driven machine learning (ML) models are two major paradigms for gapless LST estimation, which have their respective advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, a physics-constrained ML model, which combines the strengths in the mechanism model and ML model, is proposed to generate gapless LST with physical meanings and high accuracy. The hybrid model employs ML as the primary architecture, under which the input variable physical constraints are incorporated to enhance the interpretability and extrapolation ability of the model. Specifically, the light gradient-boosting machine (LGBM) model, which uses only remote sensing data as input, serves as the pure ML model. Physical constraints (PCs) are coupled by further incorporating key Community Land Model (CLM) forcing data (cause) and CLM simulation data (effect) as inputs into the LGBM model. This integration forms the PC-LGBM model, which incorporates surface energy balance (SEB) constraints underlying the data in CLM-LST modeling within a biophysical framework. Compared with a pure physical method and pure ML methods, the PC-LGBM model improves the prediction accuracy and physical interpretability of LST. It also demonstrates a good extrapolation ability for the responses to extreme weather cases, suggesting that the PC-LGBM model enables not only empirical learning from data but also rationally derived from theory. The proposed method represents an innovative way to map accurate and physically interpretable gapless LST, and could provide insights to accelerate knowledge discovery in land surface processes and data mining in geographical parameter estimation

Estimating Fire Background Temperature at a Geostationary Scale-An Evaluation of Contextual Methods for AHI-8

An integral part of any remotely sensed fire detection and attribution method is an estimation of the target pixels background temperature. This temperature cannot be measured directly independent of fire radiation, so indirect methods must be used to create an estimate of this background value. The most commonly used method of background temperature estimation is through derivation from the surrounding obscuration-free pixels available in the same image, in a contextual estimation process. This method of contextual estimation performs well in cloud-free conditions and in areas with homogeneous landscape characteristics, but increasingly complex sets of rules are required when contextual coverage is not optimal. The effects of alterations to the search radius and sample size on the accuracy of contextually derived brightness temperature are heretofore unexplored. This study makes use of imagery from the AHI-8 geostationary satellite to examine contextual estimators for deriving background temperature, at a range of contextual window sizes and percentages of valid contextual information. Results show that while contextual estimation provides accurate temperatures for pixels with no contextual obscuration, significant deterioration of results occurs when even a small portion of the target pixels surroundings are obscured. To maintain the temperature estimation accuracy, the use of no less than 65% of a target pixels total contextual coverage is recommended. The study also examines the use of expanding window sizes and their effect on temperature estimation. Results show that the accuracy of temperature estimation decreases significantly when expanding the examined window, with a 50% increase in temperature variability when using a larger window size than 5×5 pixels, whilst generally providing limited gains in the total number of temperature estimates (between 0.4%4.4% of all pixels examined). The work also presents a number of case study regions taken from the AH

Land Surface Temperature Reconstruction Under Long-Term Cloudy-Sky Conditions at 250 m Spatial Resolution: Case Study of Vinschgau/Venosta Valley in the European Alps

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Estimating land-surface temperature under clouds using MSG/SEVIRI observations

The retrieval of land-surface temperature (LST) from thermal infrared satellite sensor observations is known to suffer from cloud contamination. Hence few studies focus on LST retrieval under cloudy conditions. In this paper a temporal neighboring-pixel approach is presented that reconstructs the diurnal cycle of LST by exploiting the temporal domain offered by geo-stationary satellite observations (i.e. MSG/SEVIRI), and yields LST estimates even for overcast moments when satellite sensor can only record cloud-top temperatures. Contrasting to the neighboring pixel approach as presented by Jin and Dickinson (2002), our approach naturally satisfies all sorts of spatial homogeneity assumptions and is hence more suited for earth surfaces characterized by scattered land-use practices. Validation is performed against in situ measurements of infrared land-surface temperature obtained at two validation sites in Africa. Results vary and show a bias of -3.68K and a RMSE of 5.55K for the validation site in Kenya, while results obtained over the site in Burkina Faso are more encouraging with a bias of 0.37K and RMSE of 5.11 K. Error analysis reveals that uncertainty of the estimation of cloudy sky LST is attributed to errors in estimation of the underlying clear sky LST, all-sky global radiation, and inaccuracies inherent to the 'neighboring pixel' scheme itself. An error propagation model applied for the proposed temporal neighboring-pixel approach reveals that the absolute error of the obtained cloudy sky LST is less than 1.5K in the best case scenario, and the uncertainty increases linearly with the absolute error of clear sky LST. Despite this uncertainty, the proposed method is practical for retrieving the LST under a cloudy sky condition, and it is promising to reconstruct diurnal LST cycles from geo-stationary satellite observations

Estimation et évaluation d'incertitude d'indicateurs agrométéorologiques par télédétection en vue de supporter la lutte phytosanitaire

La caractérisation de la variabilité spatiale des conditions agrométéorologiques est essentielle à la prévision des insectes ravageurs et des maladies des cultures (IRMC) et à leur gestion spécifique par site. L’objectif de notre étude a été de modéliser, estimer et spatialiser à l'échelle locale et régionale des indicateurs agrométéorologiques (IAM) ainsi que leurs incertitudes. L'imagerie multispectrale et la thermographie infrarouge aéroportée ont été utilisées pour estimer à l'échelle locale des IAM dont le NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), la proportion de couverture végétale (PCV), la température de surface (TS) et l'indice TVDI (Temperature/Vegetation Dryness Index) de l’humidité de surface. Deux nouveaux indicateurs ont été proposés: l’indicateur MTVX (Modified Temperature/Vegetation Index) de la température de l’air près de la surface (TAPS), et l’indice des conditions de stress thermique des cultures (ISTC). Les IAM ont été estimés à l'échelle régionale à l’aide des images satellite AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer). Les incertitudes résultantes (ICR) des IAM ont été formulées sur la base de la loi de propagation des incertitudes. La spatialisation des IAM a été réalisée selon une approche dynamique basée sur un krigeage multivariable intégrant les facteurs dominants de leur variabilité spatiale. Les IAM ont démontré de fortes variabilités intraparcellaires, locales et régionales. Ils permettent de répondre aux besoins de caractérisation des conditions agrométéorologiques qui régissent les occurrences et le développement des IRMC. Des corrélations élevées ont été observées entre les mesures d'occurrence de plusieurs IRMC des cultures maraîchères et les indicateurs thermiques TS, TVDI, MTVX et ISTC. Celles-ci démontrent que les conditions de température qui prédominent à la surface des champs influencent davantage les IRMC. Ces indicateurs devraient être privilégiés dans la prévision des IRMC et dans la mise en place d’approche de gestion intégrée des ravageurs. Les aspects novateurs de la modélisation des indicateurs MTVX et ISTC, la formulation des ICR et leur estimation en tout point du territoire, la mise en place d'un cadre formel basé sur les ICR et un coefficient de performance globale pour évaluer et comparer différents modèles d'estimation des IAM, ainsi que l’approche de spatialisation dynamique, constituent des apports majeurs de notre étude.The characterization of the spatial variability of agrometeorological conditions is essential to the prediction and site-specific management of crop pests and diseases (CPD). The aim of our study was to model, estimate and spatialize local and regional agrometeorological indicators (AMI) and their uncertainties. Airborne multispectral imaging and infrared thermography were used to estimate AMIs at local scale such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Percent Canopy Cover (PCC), Surface Temperature (ST) and the Temperature/Vegetation dryness index (TVDI), an indicator of surface moisture. Two new indicators were also proposed: the Crop Heat Stress Index (CHSI) and the Modified Temperature/Vegetation Index (MTVX), an indicator of the near-surface air temperature. AMIs were estimated at the regional scale using satellite images from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). The formulation of resultant uncertainties (RUC) of AMIs was based on the law of propagation of uncertainty. The spatialization of observed AMIs in-field was performed using a dynamic approach based on a multivariate kriging that integrated the dominant factors of their spatial variability. AMIs showed a high spatial variability at intra-site, local, and regional scales. They meet the need of the characterization of agrometeorological conditions under which the CPDs appear and develop. High correlations were observed between measures of the occurrence of several vegetable CPDs and thermal indicators like ST, TVDI, MTVX, and CHSI. These correlations show that surface temperature and near-surface air temperature have the most influence on the occurrence and the development of CPDs. Therefore, these indicators should be used in forecasting and in the implementation of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Major contributions of our study are the innovative aspects of the modeling of indicators MTVX and ISTC, the formulation of the RUs of AMIs and their estimation anywhere in the area of interest, the establishment of a formal framework based on RUs and a global performance index to evaluate and compare different models used to estimate AMIs, and the dynamic spatialization approach