Validating Satellite-Derived LST Over Heterogeneous Land Surfaces

Land Surface Temperature (LST) products retrieved from satellite remote sensing has been an indispensable data source for variation application at regional and global scale. Mounts of remote sensing LST products has been released at regional even global scale with advantages of multi-spatial and multi-temporal resolution. However, the inadequate evaluation seriously impedes the application of those LST products, especially on the heterogeneous land surface which few validating work involved at present. In this chapter, we implemented the validation on the remote-sensed LST over the heterogeneous surface, and a new validation strategy was developed as a supplement validation method in the light of the Radiance-based method. The middle reaches of Heihe River Basin was selected as experiment area to implement the LST validation. The pixel-representative LST values were simulated to evaluate the remote-sensed LST products by using the MODTRAN model based on the corresponding in situ measurements, such as LSE and atmospheric profile measurements. The daily MODIS LST products (MOD/MYD11_L2) widely used recently were evaluated based on the heterogeneous core experiment area of the Heihe Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research (HiWATER) project, West China.