MODIS/TERRA land surface temperature (LST) remote sensing

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a 36-channel from visible to thermal-infrared sensor that was launched as part of the Terra satellite (18 December 1999) and Aqua satellite (May 2002)

Software used: MRT3.1 and GRASS5.7

At IRST we have processed all available data for Mid/Southern Europe from 2/2000 - 7/2004.


MODIS/Terra surface temperature LST product
Temporal Extent: 2000-06-25 to present
MODIS_surf_temp_28aug2001_small_day
28 August 2001 at 10:09:19 UTC - surface temperature (Celsius)

Part of Northern Italy as seen from MODIS/TERRA (MOD10A1) at 1km resolution (geocoded to Gauss-Boaga). Additionally a quality map is available which is not shown here.
MODIS_surf_temp_28aug2001_small_night
28 August 2001 at 22:58:45 UTC - surface temperature (Celsius)

Part of Northern Italy as seen from MODIS/TERRA (MOD10A1) at 1km resolution (geocoded to Gauss-Boaga). Additionally a quality map is available which is not shown here.


aug2001_mean_temp_1200hore
 Multitemporal analysis
Mean midday temperatures in Celsius for August 2001 (around 12:00 Italian time) at 1km resolution.
Calculated on per-pixel base, no interpolation.
aug2001_quality_mean_temp_1200hore Multitemporal analysis
Quality map for "Mean midday temperatures for August 2001 (around 12:00 Italian time) at 1km resolution.". Due to clouds in the area the number of days for the mean temperature is reduced.
This map shows the number of days per pixel used for calculation. The more red, the higher the
error of mean tmperature.

General information on MODIS surface temperature products

MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST/E) products provide per-pixel temperature and emissivity values. Temperatures are extracted in Kelvin with a view-angle dependent algorithm applied to direct observations. This method yields 1 K accuracy for materials with known emissivities. The view angle information is included in each LST/E product. Emissivities are estimates derived from applying algorithm output to land cover database information. The LST/E algorithms use MODIS data as input, including geolocation, radiance, cloud masking, atmospheric temperature, water vapor, snow, and land cover. The temperature products in turn are key inputs to many of the high level MODIS products and provide data for global temperature mapping and change observation. On land, soil and canopy temperature are among the main determinants of the rate of growth of vegetation and they govern seasonal starting and termination of growth. Hydrologic processes such as evapotranspiration and snow and ice melt are highly sensitive to surface temperature fluctuation, which is also an important discriminating factor in classification of land surface types (cited from USGS web site).

Besides daily temperatures also 8-days averaged maps are available (this is simply a composite generated by averaging 8 days of daily LST product).

GRID V001: Version-1 MODIS/Terra data are beta products.

GRID V003: These MOD11A1 data are provided daily as a gridded level-3 product in the Integerized Sinusoidal projection. Version-3 MODIS/Terra data are provisional products (i.e., changes have been made to one or more science algorithms as part of ongoing data enhancement activities).

Links:

Markus Neteler 8/2002
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