Comparing night-time satellite land surface temperature from MODIS and ground measured air temperature across a conurbation

Abstract

The relationship between remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) data and ground-measured air temperature is important for a number of applications. This article details a pilot project over the summer (June, July, August) 2010 using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data and air temperature data from a custom network of data loggers across the conurbation of Birmingham, UK. The results show that at night-time air temperature is consistently higher than the satellite-measured LST, but significant station-specific variability exists.

Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by a number of sources, including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Birmingham City Council, Central Networks and the Knowledge Transfer Partnership. The research would not have been possible without the satellite data from NASA, distributed by the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC), located at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center (lpdaac.usgs.gov).