Retrievals of All-Weather Daily Air Temperature Using MODIS and AMSR-E Data

Remote Sensing

Keunchang Jang²  Sinkyu Kang²  John S. Kimball¹ 

[1] Flathead Lake Biological Station, Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, Polson, MT 59860, USA; E-Mail:;Department of Environmental Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea; E-Mail:

关键词: air temperature;    MODIS;    brightness temperature;    AMSR-E;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs6098387

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Satellite optical-infrared remote sensing from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides effective air temperature (T_a) retrieval at a spatial resolution of 5 km. However, frequent cloud cover can result in substantial signal loss and remote sensing retrieval error in MODIS T_a. We presented a simple pixel-wise empirical regression method combining synergistic information from MODIS T_a and 37 GHz frequency brightness temperature (T_b) retrievals from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) for estimating surface level T_a under both clear and cloudy sky conditions in the United States for 2006. The instantaneous T_a retrievals showed favorable agreement with in situ air temperature records from 40 AmeriFlux tower sites; mean R² correspondence was 86.5 and 82.7 percent, while root mean square errors (RMSE) for the T_a retrievals were 4.58 K and 4.99 K for clear and cloudy sky conditions, respectively. Daily mean T_a was estimated using the instantaneous T_a retrievals from day/night overpasses, and showed favorable agreement with local tower measurements (R² = 0.88; RMSE = 3.48 K). The results of this study indicate that the combination of MODIS and AMSR-E sensor data can produce T_a retrievals with reasonable accuracy and relatively fine spatial resolution (∼5 km) for clear and cloudy sky conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland