Land Surface Temperature & Emissivity

Overview

The Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Emissivity daily data are retrieved at 1km pixels by the generalized split-window algorithm and at 6km grids by the day/night algorithm. In the split-window algorithm, emissivities in bands 31 and 32 are estimated from land cover types, atmospheric column water vapor and lower boundary air surface temperature are separated into tractable sub-ranges for optimal retrieval. In the day/night algorithm, daytime and nighttime LSTs and surface emissivities are retrieved from pairs of day and night MODIS observations in seven TIR bands. The product is comprised of LSTs, quality assessment, observation time, view angles, and emissivities. Users please note: Radiance-based validation and comparisons performed in 2008 with AIRS and ASTER products indicate that the land surface temperature in the C5 CMG products underestimated LST by up to 6K in some desert regions. Subsequent to these findings, users requested continued production of the C4 MODIS LST products simultaneous with the C5 LST production in the belief that the C4 MODIS LST products provide better results over desert regions. It was thus decided at the 2008 science team meeting that both C4 and C5 LST would be produced and released to the public. Since the L1B Cloud Mask and atmospheric profile inputs to LST are only available in C5 after 2007001, the C4 LST algorithm was updated to read this C5 input, and is thus identified as version C4.1, available from 2007 onward. For additional information, see the C4.1 LST document.

Product Information

• Zhengming Wan
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Product Details