Abstract
The thermal infrared (TIR) radiance at sensor measured by any spaceborne or airborne instrument will include atmospheric emission, scattering, and absorption by the Earth’s atmosphere. These atmospheric effects need to be removed from the observation in order to isolate the land-leaving surface radiance contribution and retrieve important surface variables such as land surface temperature (LST) and emissivity. The accuracy of the atmospheric correction is dependent upon accurate characterization of the atmospheric state using independent atmospheric profiles of temperature, water vapor, and other gas constituents. The profiles are typically input to a radiative transfer model for estimating atmospheric transmittance, path, and sky radiances. Residual errors from incomplete atmospheric correction constitute one of the largest uncertainties in derived LST and emissivity products from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on NASA’s Terra satellite. This chapter will describe a technique for improving the accuracy of the atmospheric parameters on a pixel-by-pixel basis using the Water Vapor Scaling (WVS) method. We have shown that using WVS can improve the accuracy of LST retrievals by up to 5 K for MODIS and 3 K for ASTER data in humid conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Barton IJ, Zavody AM, Obrien DM, Cutten DR, Saunders RW, Llewellyn-Jones DT (1989) Theoretical algorithms for satellite-derived sea-surface temperatures. J Geophys Res-Atmos 94:3365–3375
Berk A, Anderson GP, Acharya PK, Bernstein LS, Muratov L, Lee J, Fox M, Adler-Golden SM, Chetwynd JH, Hoke ML, Lockwood RB, Gardner JA, Cooley TW, Borel CC, Lewis PE (2005) MODTRANTM 5, a reformulated atmospheric band model with auxiliary species and practical multiple scattering options: update. In Sylvia SS, Lewis PE (eds) Algorithms and technologies for multispectral, hyperspectral, and ultraspectral imagery XI. Proceedings of SPIE, Bellingham
Coll C, Caselles V (1997) A split-window algorithm for land surface temperature from advanced very high resolution radiometer data: validation and algorithm comparison. J Geophys Res-Atmos 102:16697–16713
Coll C, Caselles V, Valor E, Niclos R, Sanchez JM, Galve JM, Mira M (2007) Temperature and emissivity separation from ASTER data for low spectral contrast surfaces. Remote Sens Environ 110:162–175
Deschamps PY, Phulpin T (1980) Atmospheric correction of infrared measurements of sea-surface temperature using channels at 3.7, 11 and 12 Mu-M. Bound-Layer Meteorol 18:131–143
Francois C, Ottle C (1996) Atmospheric corrections in the thermal infrared: global and water vapor dependent split-window algorithms – applications to ATSR and AVHRR data. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 34:457–470
Galve JA, Coll C, Caselles V, Valor E (2008) An atmospheric radiosounding database for generating land surface temperature algorithms. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 46:1547–1557
Gillespie A, Rokugawa S, Matsunaga T, Cothern JS, Hook S, Kahle AB (1998) A temperature and emissivity separation algorithm for advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) images. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 36:1113–1126
Gustafson WT, Gillespie AR, Yamada GJ (2006) Revisions to the ASTER temperature/emissivity separation algorithm. In: 2nd international symposium on recent advances in quantitative remote sensing, Torrent (Valencia), Spain
Hook SJ, Gabell AR, Green AA, Kealy PS (1992) A comparison of techniques for extracting emissivity information from thermal infrared data for geologic studies. Remote Sens Environ 42:123–135
Hulley GC, Hook SJ (2009) The North American ASTER Land Surface Emissivity Database (NAALSED) version 2.0. Remote Sens Environ 113:1967–1975
Hulley GC, Hook SJ (2011) Generating consistent land surface temperature and emissivity products between ASTER and MODIS data for earth science research. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 49:1304–1315
Hulley GC, Hook SJ, Baldridge AM (2009) Validation of the North American ASTER Land Surface Emissivity Database (NAALSED) version 2.0 using pseudo-invariant sand dune sites. Remote Sens Environ 113:2224–2233
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Baker WE (1990) Global numerical weather prediction at the National-Meteorological-Center. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 71:1410–1428
Kneizys FX, Abreu LW, Anderson GP, Chetwynd JH, Shettle EP, Berk A, Bernstein LS, Robertson DC, Acharya PK, Rothman LA, Selby JEA, Gallery WO, Clough SA (1996b) The MODTRAN 2/3 report & LOWTRAN 7 model, F19628-91-C-0132. Phillips Laboratory Hanscom AFB, Bedford
Li ZL, Becker F, Stoll MP, Wan ZM (1999) Evaluation of six methods for extracting relative emissivity spectra from thermal infrared images. Remote Sens Environ 69:197–214
Prata AJ (1994) Land-surface temperatures derived from the advanced very high-resolution radiometer and the along-track scanning radiometer.2. Experimental results and validation of Avhrr algorithms. J Geophys Res-Atmos 99:13025–13058
Price JC (1984) Land surface temperature measurements from the split window channels of the NOAA 7 advanced very high resolution radiometer. J Geophys Res 89:7231–7237
Snyder WC, Wan Z, Zhang Y, Feng YZ (1998) Classification-based emissivity for land surface temperature measurement from space. Int J Remote Sens 19:2753–2774
Tonooka H (2001) An atmospheric correction algorithm for thermal infrared multispectral data over land – a water-vapor scaling method. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 39:682–692
Tonooka H (2005a) Accurate atmospheric correction of ASTER thermal infrared imagery using the WVS method. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 43:2778–2792
Tonooka H (2005b) Atmospheric correction of MODIS thermal infrared bands by water vapor scaling method. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 5979:152–163
Wan ZM, Dozier J (1996) A generalized split-window algorithm for retrieving land-surface temperature from space. Proc SPIE 34:892–905
Yu Y, Privette JL, Pinheiro AC (2008) Evaluation of split-window land surface temperature algorithms for generating climate data records. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 46:179–192
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hulley, G. (2013). A Water Vapor Scaling (WVS) Method for Improving Atmospheric Correction of Thermal Infrared (TIR) Data. In: Kuenzer, C., Dech, S. (eds) Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing. Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6639-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6639-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6638-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6639-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)