ABSTRACT
The DisTrad (Disaggregation Procedure for Radiometric Surface Temperature) model shows limited applicability for sub-pixel mapping of thermal remote-sensing images in densely vegetated areas due to the phenomenon of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) saturation. In this article, we compared the effect of NDVI and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) in the DisTrad model for thermal sub-pixel mapping in densely vegetated areas due to their different sensitivity in densely vegetated areas. Taking Ganzhou in Southern China as an example, we produced 250-m thermal remote-sensing images from a 1000-m image using 250-m NDVI and EVI data. After comparing with the synchronous 90-m thermal image from advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer, we found that the EVI can achieve a better result than NDVI in densely vegetated areas.
Acknowledgements
Natural Science Foundation, NSFC (41401485), the China National Key Technology R&D Program (2012BAH32B03) and the China National 863 Program (2006AA06A306) are acknowledged for financial supports. Jake Carpenter of Beverly Hills English is thanked for the comments and corrections. This is contribution No. IS-2485 from GIGCAS.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.