Generation of dense time series synthetic Landsat data through data blending with MODIS using a spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model

Landsat imagery with a 30 m spatial resolution is well suited for characterizing landscape-level forest structure and dynamics. While Landsat images have advantageous spatial and spectral characteristics for describing vegetation properties, the Landsat sensor's revisit rate, or the temporal resolution of the data, is 16 days. When considering that cloud cover may impact any given acquisition, this lengthy revisit rate often results in a dearth of imagery for a desired time interval (e.g., month, growing season, or year) especially for areas at higher latitudes with shorter growing seasons. In contrast, MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) has a high temporal resolution, covering the Earth up to multiple times per day, and depending on the spectral characteristics of interest, MODIS data have spatial resolutions of 250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m. By combining Landsat and MODIS data, we are able to capitalize on the spatial detail of Landsat and the temporal regularity of MODIS acquisitions. In this research, we apply and demonstrate a data fusion approach (Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model, STARFM) at a mainly coniferous study area in central British Columbia, Canada. Reflectance data for selected MODIS channels, all of which were resampled to 500 m, and Landsat (at 30 m) were combined to produce 18 synthetic Landsat images encompassing the 2001 growing season (May to October). We compared, on a channel-by-channel basis, the surface reflectance values (stratified by broad land cover types) of four real Landsat images with the corresponding closest date of synthetic Landsat imagery, and found no significant difference between real (observed) and synthetic (predicted) reflectance values (mean difference in reflectance: mixed forest x? = 0.086, σ = 0.088, broadleaf x? = 0.019, σ = 0.079, coniferous x? = 0.039, σ = 0.093). Similarly, a pixel based analysis shows that predicted and observed reflectance values for the four Landsat dates were closely related (mean r² = 0.76 for the NIR band; r² = 0.54 for the red band; p < 0.01). Investigating the trend in NDVI values in synthetic Landsat values over a growing season revealed that phenological patterns were well captured; however, when seasonal differences lead to a change in land cover (i.e., disturbance, snow cover), the algorithm used to generate the synthetic Landsat images was, as expected, less effective at predicting reflectance.     

Satellite passive microwave remote sensing for monitoring global land surface phenology

Vegetation phenology characterizes seasonal life-cycle events that influence the carbon cycle and land-atmosphere water and energy exchange. We analyzed global phenology cycles over a six year record (2003-2008) using satellite passive microwave remote sensing based Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) retrievals derived from daily time series brightness temperature (T_b) measurements from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E) and other ancillary data inputs. The VOD parameter derives vegetation canopy attenuation at a given microwave frequency (18.7 GHz) and varies with canopy height, density, structure and water content. An error sensitivity analysis indicates that the retrieval algorithm can resolve the VOD seasonal cycle over a majority of global vegetated land areas. The VOD results corresponded favorably (p < 0.01) with vegetation indices (VIs) and leaf area index (LAI) information from satellite optical-infrared (MODIS) remote sensing, and phenology cycles determined from a simple bioclimatic growing season index (GSI) for over 82% of the global domain. Lower biomass land cover classes (e.g. savannas) show the highest correlations (R = 0.66), with reduced correspondence at higher biomass levels (0.03 < R < 0.51) and higher correlations for homogeneous land cover areas (0.41 < R < 0.83). The VOD results display a unique end-of-season signal relative to VI and LAI series, and may reflect microwave sensitivity to the timing of vegetation biomass depletion (e.g. leaf abscission) and associated changes in canopy water content (e.g. dormancy preparation). The VOD parameter is independent of and synergistic with optical-infrared remote sensing based vegetation metrics, and contributes to a more comprehensive view of land surface phenology.     

Remote sensing of the urban heat island effect across biomes in the continental USA

Impervious surface area (ISA) from the Landsat TM-based NLCD 2001 dataset and land surface temperature (LST) from MODIS averaged over three annual cycles (2003-2005) are used in a spatial analysis to assess the urban heat island (UHI) skin temperature amplitude and its relationship to development intensity, size, and ecological setting for 38 of the most populous cities in the continental United States. Development intensity zones based on %ISA are defined for each urban area emanating outward from the urban core to the non-urban rural areas nearby and used to stratify sampling for land surface temperatures and NDVI. Sampling is further constrained by biome and elevation to insure objective intercomparisons between zones and between cities in different biomes permitting the definition of hierarchically ordered zones that are consistent across urban areas in different ecological setting and across scales.We find that ecological context significantly influences the amplitude of summer daytime UHI (urban-rural temperature difference) the largest (8 °C average) observed for cities built in biomes dominated by temperate broadleaf and mixed forest. For all cities combined, ISA is the primary driver for increase in temperature explaining 70% of the total variance in LST. On a yearly average, urban areas are substantially warmer than the non-urban fringe by 2.9 °C, except for urban areas in biomes with arid and semiarid climates. The average amplitude of the UHI is remarkably asymmetric with a 4.3 °C temperature difference in summer and only 1.3 °C in winter. In desert environments, the LST's response to ISA presents an uncharacteristic “U-shaped” horizontal gradient decreasing from the urban core to the outskirts of the city and then increasing again in the suburban to the rural zones. UHI's calculated for these cities point to a possible heat sink effect. These observational results show that the urban heat island amplitude both increases with city size and is seasonally asymmetric for a large number of cities across most biomes. The implications are that for urban areas developed within forested ecosystems the summertime UHI can be quite high relative to the wintertime UHI suggesting that the residential energy consumption required for summer cooling is likely to increase with urban growth within those biomes.     

Comparison of MODIS, eddy covariance determined and physiologically modelled gross primary production (GPP) in a Douglas-fir forest stand

Quantification of the magnitude of net terrestrial carbon (C) uptake, and how it varies inter-annually, is an important question with future potential sequestration influenced by both increased atmospheric CO₂ and changing climate. However the assessment of differences in measured and modeled C accumulation is a challenging task due to the significant fine scale variation occurring in terrestrial productivity due to soil, climate and vegetation characteristics as well as difficulties in measuring carbon accumulation over large spatial areas. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) offers a means of monitoring gross primary production (GPP), both spatially and temporally, routinely from space. However it is critical to compare and contrast the temporal dynamics of the C and water fluxes with those measured from ground-based networks, or estimated using physiological models. In this paper, using a number of approaches, our objective is to determine if any systematic biases exists in either the MODIS, or the modeled estimates of fluxes, relative to the measurements made over an evergreen, needleleaf temperate rainforest on Vancouver Island, Canada. Results indicate that 8-day GPP as predicted with a simple physiological model (3PGS), forced using local meteorology and canopy characteristics, matched measured fluxes very well (r² = 0.86, p < 0.001) with no significant difference between eddy covariance (EC) and modeled GPP (p < 0.001). In addition, modeled water supply closely matched measured relative available soil water content at the site. Using canopy characteristics from the MODIS fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR) algorithm, slightly reduced the correspondence of the predictions due to a large number of unsuccessful retrievals (83%) due to sun angle, snow and cloud. Predictions of GPP based on the MODIS GPP algorithm, forced using local meteorology and canopy characteristics, were also highly correlated with EC measurements (r² = 0.89, p < 0.001) however these estimates were biased under predicting GPP. Estimates of GPP based on the most recent MODIS reprocessing (collection 4.5) remained highly correlated (r² = 0.88, p < 0.001) yet were also the most biased with the estimates being 30% less than the EC-measured GPP. Most of the variance in GPP at the site was explained by the absorbed photosynthetically active radiation. We also compared the nighttime respiration as measured over 2 years at the site with the minimum 8-day MODIS land surface temperature and found a significant relationship (r² = 0.57), similar to other studies.     

A comparison of multi-spectral, multi-angular, and multi-temporal remote sensing datasets for fractional shrub canopy mapping in Arctic Alaska

Shrub cover appears to be increasing across many areas of the Arctic tundra biome, and increasing shrub cover in the Arctic has the potential to significantly impact global carbon budgets and the global climate system. For most of the Arctic, however, there is no existing baseline inventory of shrub canopy cover, as existing maps of Arctic vegetation provide little information about the density of shrub cover at a moderate spatial resolution across the region. Remotely-sensed fractional shrub canopy maps can provide this necessary baseline inventory of shrub cover. In this study, we compare the accuracy of fractional shrub canopy (> 0.5 m tall) maps derived from multi-spectral, multi-angular, and multi-temporal datasets from Landsat imagery at 30 m spatial resolution, Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) imagery at 250 m and 500 m spatial resolution, and MultiAngle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) imagery at 275 m spatial resolution for a 1067 km² study area in Arctic Alaska. The study area is centered at 69 °N, ranges in elevation from 130 to 770 m, is composed primarily of rolling topography with gentle slopes less than 10°, and is free of glaciers and perennial snow cover. Shrubs > 0.5 m in height cover 2.9% of the study area and are primarily confined to patches associated with specific landscape features. Reference fractional shrub canopy is determined from in situ shrub canopy measurements and a high spatial resolution IKONOS image swath. Regression tree models are constructed to estimate fractional canopy cover at 250 m using different combinations of input data from Landsat, MODIS, and MISR. Results indicate that multi-spectral data provide substantially more accurate estimates of fractional shrub canopy cover than multi-angular or multi-temporal data. Higher spatial resolution datasets also provide more accurate estimates of fractional shrub canopy cover (aggregated to moderate spatial resolutions) than lower spatial resolution datasets, an expected result for a study area where most shrub cover is concentrated in narrow patches associated with rivers, drainages, and slopes. Including the middle infrared bands available from Landsat and MODIS in the regression tree models (in addition to the four standard visible and near-infrared spectral bands) typically results in a slight boost in accuracy. Including the multi-angular red band data available from MISR in the regression tree models, however, typically boosts accuracy more substantially, resulting in moderate resolution fractional shrub canopy estimates approaching the accuracy of estimates derived from the much higher spatial resolution Landsat sensor. Given the poor availability of snow and cloud-free Landsat scenes in many areas of the Arctic and the promising results demonstrated here by the MISR sensor, MISR may be the best choice for large area fractional shrub canopy mapping in the Alaskan Arctic for the period 2000-2009.     

Validation of MODIS derived aerosol optical depth over the Yangtze River Delta in China

MODIS derived aerosol optical depths (AODs) at 550 nm are compared with sunphotometer CE318 measurements at 7 sites located at Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China from July to October, 2007. The evaluation result indicates that MODIS AODs (Collection 5, C005) are in good agreement with those from CE318 in dense vegetation regions, but show more differences in those regions with complex underlying surface (such as at lake water and urban surface sites). Reasons for these differences are discussed after removing cases with significant errors caused by validation scheme. The final validation result shows that MODIS AODs are in good agreement with CE318 with a correlation coefficient of 0.85 and RMS of 0.15. 90% of MODIS cases fall in the range of Δτ = ± 0.05 ± 0.20τ, indicating MODIS aerosol retrieval algorithm, aerosol models and surface reflectance estimate are generally suitably reasonable for aerosol retrieval in YRD. However, MODIS AODs show a systemic errors with fitted line of y = 0.75x + 0.13, indicating underestimation of AOD when aerosol loadings are high. Aerosol models and surface reflectance estimations are dominant sources of MODIS aerosol retrieval errors.     

Cross-scalar satellite phenology from ground, Landsat, and MODIS data

Phenological records constructed from global mapping satellite platforms (e.g. AVHRR and MODIS) hold the potential to be valuable tools for monitoring vegetation response to global climate change. However, most satellite phenology products are not validated, and field checking coarse scale (≥ 500 m) data with confidence is a difficult endeavor. In this research, we compare phenology from Landsat (field scale, 30 m) to MODIS (500 m), and compare datasets derived from each instrument. Landsat and MODIS yield similar estimates of the start of greenness (r² = 0.60), although we find that a high degree of spatial phenological variability within coarser-scale MODIS pixels may be the cause of the remaining uncertainty. In addition, spatial variability is smoothed in MODIS, a potential source of error when comparing in situ or climate data to satellite phenology. We show that our method for deriving phenology from satellite data generates spatially coherent interannual phenology departures in MODIS data. We test these estimates from 2000 to 2005 against long-term records from Harvard Forest (Massachusetts) and Hubbard Brook (New Hampshire) Experimental Forests. MODIS successfully predicts 86% of the variance at Harvard forest and 70% of the variance at Hubbard Brook; the more extreme topography of the later is inferred to be a significant source of error. In both analyses, the satellite estimate is significantly dampened from the ground-based observations, suggesting systematic error (slopes of 0.56 and 0.63, respectively). The satellite data effectively estimates interannual phenology at two relatively simple deciduous forest sites and is internally consistent, even with changing spatial scale. We propose that continued analyses of interannual phenology will be an effective tool for monitoring native forest responses to global-scale climate variability.     

MODIS tree cover validation for the circumpolar taiga-tundra transition zone

A validation of the 2005 500 m MODIS vegetation continuous fields (VCF) tree cover product in the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone was performed using high resolution Quickbird imagery. Assessing the VCF's performance near the northern limits of the boreal forest can help quantify the accuracy of the product within this vegetation transition area. The circumpolar region was divided into 7 longitudinal zones and validation sites were selected in areas of varying tree cover where Quickbird imagery is available in Google Earth. Each site was linked to the corresponding VCF pixel and overlaid with a regular dot grid within the VCF pixel's boundary to estimate percent tree crown cover in the area. Percent tree crown cover was estimated using Quickbird imagery for 396 sites throughout the circumpolar region and related to the VCF's estimates of canopy cover for 2000-2005. Regression results of VCF inter-annual comparisons (2000-2005) and VCF-Quickbird image-interpreted estimates indicate that: (1) Pixel-level, inter-annual comparisons of VCF estimates of percent canopy cover were linearly related (mean R² = 0.77) and exhibited an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 10.1% and an average root mean square difference (RMSD) of 7.3%. (2) A comparison of image-interpreted percent tree crown cover estimates based on dot counts on Quickbird color images by two different interpreters were more variable (R² = 0.73, RMSE = 14.8%, RMSD = 18.7%) than VCF inter-annual comparisons. (3) Across the circumpolar boreal region, 2005 VCF-Quickbird comparisons were linearly related, with an R² = 0.57, a RMSE = 13.4% and a RMSD = 21.3%, with a tendency to over-estimate areas of low percent tree cover and anomalous VCF results in Scandinavia. The relationship of the VCF estimates and ground reference indicate to potential users that the VCF's tree cover values for individual pixels, particularly those below 20% tree cover, may not be precise enough to monitor 500 m pixel-level tree cover in the taiga-tundra transition zone.     

Improvements to a MODIS global terrestrial evapotranspiration algorithm

MODIS global evapotranspiration (ET) products by Mu et al. [Mu, Q., Heinsch, F. A., Zhao, M., Running, S. W. (2007). Development of a global evapotranspiration algorithm based on MODIS and global meteorology data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 111, 519-536. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2007.04.015] are the first regular 1-km² land surface ET dataset for the 109.03 Million km² global vegetated land areas at an 8-day interval. In this study, we have further improved the ET algorithm in Mu et al. (2007a, hereafter called old algorithm) by 1) simplifying the calculation of vegetation cover fraction; 2) calculating ET as the sum of daytime and nighttime components; 3) adding soil heat flux calculation; 4) improving estimates of stomatal conductance, aerodynamic resistance and boundary layer resistance; 5) separating dry canopy surface from the wet; and 6) dividing soil surface into saturated wet surface and moist surface. We compared the improved algorithm with the old one both globally and locally at 46 eddy flux towers. The global annual total ET over the vegetated land surface is 62.8 × 10³ km³, agrees very well with other reported estimates of 65.5 × 10³ km³ over the terrestrial land surface, which is much higher than 45.8 × 10³ km³ estimated with the old algorithm. For ET evaluation at eddy flux towers, the improved algorithm reduces mean absolute bias (MAE) of daily ET from 0.39 mm day⁻¹ to 0.33 mm day⁻¹ driven by tower meteorological data, and from 0.40 mm day⁻¹ to 0.31 mm day⁻¹ driven by GMAO data, a global meteorological reanalysis dataset. MAE values by the improved ET algorithm are 24.6% and 24.1% of the ET measured from towers, within the range (10-30%) of the reported uncertainties in ET measurements, implying an enhanced accuracy of the improved algorithm. Compared to the old algorithm, the improved algorithm increases the skill score with tower-driven ET estimates from 0.50 to 0.55, and from 0.46 to 0.53 with GMAO-driven ET. Based on these results, the improved ET algorithm has a better performance in generating global ET data products, providing critical information on global terrestrial water and energy cycles and environmental changes.     

Impacts of landscape structure on surface urban heat islands: A case study of Shanghai, China

Urbanization is taking place at an unprecedented rate around the world, particularly in China in the past few decades. One of the key impacts of rapid urbanization on the environment is the effect of urban heat island (UHI). Understanding the effects of landscape pattern on UHI is crucial for improving the ecology and sustainability of cities. This study investigated how landscape composition and configuration would affect UHI in the Shanghai metropolitan region of China, based on the analysis of land surface temperature (LST) in relation to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), vegetation fraction (Fv), and percent impervious surface area (ISA). Two Landsat ETM+ images acquired on March 13 and July 2, 2001 were used to estimate LST, Fv, and percent ISA. Landscape metrics were calculated from a high spatial resolution (2.5 × 2.5 m) land-cover/land-use map. Our results have showed that, although there are significant variations in LST at a given fraction of vegetation or impervious surface on a per-pixel basis, NDVI, Fv, and percent ISA are all good predictors of LST on the regional scale. There is a strong negative linear relationship between LST and positive NDVI over the region. Similar but stronger negative linear relationship exists between LST and Fv. Urban vegetation could mitigate the surface UHI better in summer than in early spring. A strong positive relationship exists between mean LST and percent ISA. The residential land is the biggest contributor to UHI, followed by industrial land. Although industrial land has the highest LST, it has limited contribution to the overall surface UHI due to its small spatial extend in Shanghai. Among the residential land-uses, areas with low- to-middle-rise buildings and low vegetation cover have much high temperatures than areas with high-rise buildings or areas with high vegetation cover. A strong correlation between the mean LST and landscape metrics indicates that urban landscape configuration also influences the surface UHI. These findings are helpful for understanding urban ecology as well as land use planning to minimize the potential environmental impacts of urbanization.     

Estimation of subpixel land surface temperature using an endmember index based technique: A case examination on ASTER and MODIS temperature products over a heterogeneous area

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter in numerous environmental studies. Surface heterogeneity induces uncertainty in estimating subpixel temperature. To take an advantage of simultaneous, multi-resolution observations at coincident nadirs by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), LST products from the two sensors were examined for a portion of suburb area in Beijing, China. We selected Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Normalized Multi-band Drought Index (NMDI), Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) as representative remote sensing indices for four land cover types (vegetation, bare soil, impervious and water area), respectively. By using support vector machines, the overall classification accuracy of the four land cover types with inputs of the four remote sensing indices, extracted from ASTER visible near infrared (VNIR) bands and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands, reached 97.66%, and Kappa coefficient was 0.9632. In order to lower the subpixel temperature estimation error caused by re-sampling of remote sensing data, a disaggregation method for subpixel temperature using the remote sensing endmember index based technique (DisEMI) was established in this study. Firstly, the area ratios and statistical information of endmember remote sensing indices were calculated from ASTER VNIR/SWIR data at 990 m and 90 m resolutions, respectively. Secondly, the relationship between the 990 m resolution MODIS LST and the corresponding input parameters (area ratios and endmember indices at the 990 m resolution) was trained by a genetic algorithm and self-organizing feature map artificial neural network (GA-SOFM-ANN). Finally, the trained models were employed to estimate the 90 m resolution subpixel temperature with inputs of area ratios and endmember indices at the 90 m resolution. ASTER LST product was used for verifying the estimated subpixel temperature, and the verified results indicate that the estimated temperature distribution was basically consistent with that of ASTER LST product. A better agreement was found between temperatures derived by our proposed method (DisEMI) and the ASTER 90 m data (R² = 0.709 and RMSE = 2.702 K).     

Validation of satellite observed thermal emission with in-situ measurements over an urban surface

The Basel Urban Boundary Layer Experiment (BUBBLE) is a joint European research project under the umbrella of COST (Coopération Européenne dans la domaine de la recherche Scientifique et Technique, COST 715: Meteorology applied to urban pollution problems). Besides very detailed field measurements of the structure and dynamics of the urban boundary layer, a series of satellite data has been analyzed and validated. Satellite data from MODIS, NOAA-AVHRR (14, 15, and 16) and Landsat-ETM were used and recorded during June and July 2002 in parallel to the BUBBLE field campaign. MODIS and NOAA-AVHRR data represent day and nighttime surface radiation temperatures in 930 m and 1100 m grid size. Landsat-ETM offers a unique resolution on 60 m, but with only daytime imagery at about the same time of MODIS overpass is available. This enables the validation of satellite measurements from different sensors with ground measurements at locations with various degrees of spatial homogeneity/heterogeneity (urban/rural land use). Several different algorithms for NOAA-AVHRR data were compared with in-situ measurements. The results show a very high correlation of the long wave emissions measured by the satellite with the in-situ measurements showing an accuracy of ± 3% to 5% on average, even in urban environments.     

Global evaluation of four AVHRR-NDVI data sets: Intercomparison and assessment against Landsat imagery

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data with their long-term (1981-current) global coverage at frequent intervals provide unique opportunities to explore vegetation dynamics related to climate variability, climate change, and land-use driven changes of land cover. Several AVHRR-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data sets exist, each based on the AVHRR Global Area Coverage archive but differing in their processing to correct for sensor and atmospheric effects. This paper presents a global comparative analysis for the land surface involving four AVHRR-derived NDVI data sets: (1) Pathfinder AVHRR Land (PAL); (2) Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS); (3) Land Long Term Data Record (LTDR) version 3 (V3); and (4) Fourier-Adjustment, Solar zenith angle corrected, Interpolated Reconstructed (FASIR). Our aims are two-fold: (1) to assess the level of agreement of the medians, trends, and variances, as well as the correlation between the four AVHRR-NDVI data sets from 1982 to 1999; and (2) to independently assess the performance of each AVHRR-NDVI data set, and that of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI, using 11,764 Landsat samples of 20 × 20 km² located globally covering every major land-cover type. For the AVHRR-NDVI intercomparison equal medians, variance, and trends, and no correlation between all the respective AVHRR-NDVI data sets were found for 9.9%, 45.5%, 48.1% and 38.4% of the total land surface, respectively (p ≥ 0.05). For the four AVHRR-NDVI data sets we found: (1) consistent trends for the tundra and particularly Australia; (2) inconsistent trends for Europe, Africa, and the Sahel; and (3) moderately consistent trends for the rest of the terrestrial land surface including North America and China. The PAL and LTDR V3 data sets lack calibration, as evidenced by the presence of apparent trends in desert areas. In the Landsat-NDVI vs. AVHRR-NDVI comparison of absolute values the LTDR V3 data set performed best, whereas in the comparison of temporal-change values the GIMMS data set performed best. In both analyses MODIS-NDVI performed better than any AVHRR-NDVI data set. The simple average of the four AVHRR-NDVI data sets produced better results than either AVHRR-NDVI data set alone, indicating that the errors between the data sets are at least partially unrelated. This research emphasizes the implications of AVHRR-NDVI data set choice for studies assessing the vegetation response to climate change and modeling of the terrestrial carbon balance.     

Comparative analysis of urban reflectance and surface temperature

Urban environmental conditions are strongly dependent on the biophysical properties and radiant thermal field of the land cover elements in the urban mosaic. Observations of urban reflectance and surface temperature provide valuable constraints on the physical properties that are determinants of mass and energy fluxes in the urban environment. Consistencies in the covariation of surface temperature with reflectance properties can be parameterized to represent characteristics of the surface energy flux associated with different land covers and physical conditions. Linear mixture models can accurately represent Landsat ETM+ reflectances as fractions of generic spectral endmembers that correspond to land surface materials with distinct physical properties. Modeling heterogeneous land cover as mixtures of rock and/or soil Substrate, Vegetation and non-reflective Dark surface (SVD) generic endmembers makes it possible to quantify the dependence of aggregate surface temperature on the relative abundance of each physical component of the land cover, thereby distinguishing the effects of vegetation abundance, soil exposure, albedo and shadowing. Comparing these covariations in a wide variety of urban settings and physical environments provides a more robust indication of the global variability in these parameter spaces than could be inferred from a single study area. A comparative analysis of 24 urban areas and their non-urban peripheries illustrates the variability in the urban thermal fields and its dependence on biophysical land surface components. Contrary to expectation, moderate resolution intra-urban variations in surface temperature are generally as large as regional surface heat island signatures in these urban areas. Many of the non-temperate urban areas did not have surface heat island signatures at all. However, the multivariate distributions of surface temperature and generic endmember fractions reveal consistent patterns of thermal fraction covariation resulting from land cover characteristics. The Thermal-Vegetation (TV) fraction space illustrates the considerable variability in the well-known inverse correlation between surface temperature and vegetation fraction at moderate (< 100 m) spatial resolutions. The Thermal-Substrate (TS) fraction space reveals energetic thresholds where competing effects of albedo, illumination and soil moisture determine the covariation of maximum and minimum temperature with illuminated substrate fraction. The dark surface endmember fraction represents a fundamental ambiguity in the radiance signal because it can correspond to either absorptive (e.g. low albedo asphalt), transmissive (e.g. deep clear water) or shadowed (e.g. tree canopy shadow) surfaces. However, in areas where dark surface composition can be inferred from spatial context, the different responses of these surfaces may still allow them to be distinguished in the thermal fraction space.     

Evaluation of MODIS snow cover and cloud mask and its application in Northern Xinjiang, China

Using five-year (2001-2005) ground-observed snow depth and cloud cover data at 20 climatic stations in Northern Xinjiang, China, this study: 1) evaluates the accuracy of the 8-day snow cover product (MOD10A2) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra satellite, 2) generates a new snow cover time series by separating the MODIS cloud masked pixels as snow and land, and 3) examines the temporal variability of snow area extent (SAE) and correlations of air temperature and elevation with SAE. Results show that, under clear sky conditions, the MOD10A2 has high accuracies when mapping snow (94%) and land (99%) at snow depth ≥ 4 cm, but a very low accuracy (< 39%) for patchy snow or thin snow depth (< 4 cm). Most of the patchy snow is misclassified as land. The mean accuracy of the cloud mask used in MOD10A2 for December, January and February is very low (19%). Based on the ratio of snow to land of ground observations in each month, the new snow cover time series generated in this study provides a better representation of actual snow cover for the study area. The SAE (%) time series exhibits similar patterns during six hydrologic years (2001-2006), even though the accumulation and melt periods do not exactly coincide. The variation of SAE is negatively associated with air temperature over the range of − 10 °C to 5 °C. An increase in elevation generally results in longer periods of snow cover, but the influence of elevation on SAE decreases as elevation exceeds 4 km in the Ili River Watershed (IRW). The number of days with snow cover shows either a decreasing trend or no trend in the IRW and the entire study area in the study period. This result is inconsistent with a reported increasing trend based on limited in situ observations. Long-term continuance of the MODIS snow cover product is critical to resolve this dilemma because the in situ observations appear to undersample the region.     

AERONET-based surface reflectance validation network (ASRVN) data evaluation: Case study for railroad valley calibration site

The AERONET-based Surface Reflectance Validation Network (ASRVN) is an operational processing system developed for validation of satellite derived surface reflectance products at regional and global scales. The ASRVN receives 50 × 50 km² subsets of MODIS data centered at AERONET sites along with AERONET aerosol and water vapor data, and performs an atmospheric correction. The ASRVN produces surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), albedo, parameters of the Ross-Thick Li-Sparse (RTLS) BRF model, as well as Hemispherical-Directional Reflectance Factor (HDRF), which is required for comparison with the ground-based measurements. This paper presents a comparison of ASRVN HDRF with the ground-based HDRF measurements collected during 2001-2008 over a bright calibration Railroad Valley, Nevada site as part of the MODIS land validation program. The ground measurements were conducted by the Remote Sensing Group (RSG) at the University of Arizona using an ASD spectrometer. The study reveals a good agreement between ASRVN and RSG HDRF for both MODIS Terra and Aqua with rmse ~ 0.01-0.025 in the 500 m MODIS land bands B1-B7. Obtained rmse is below uncertainties due to the spatial and seasonal variability of the bright calibration 1 km² area. While two MODIS instruments have a similar rmse in the visible bands, MODIS Aqua has a better agreement (lower rmse) with the ground data than MODIS Terra at wavelengths 0.87-2.1 μm. An independent overall good agreement of two MODIS instruments with the ground data indicates that the relative calibration of MODIS Terra and Aqua at medium-to-bright reflectance levels for the stated time period is significantly better than uncertainties of the ASRVN and ground data.     

Assessment of multi-resolution and multi-sensor data for urban surface temperature retrieval

Data from three thermal sensors with different spatial resolution were assessed for urban surface temperature retrieval over the Yokohama City, Japan. The sensors are Thermal Airborne Broadband Imager (TABI), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Two algorithms were developed for land surface temperature (LST) retrieval from TABI image and ASTER thermal infrared (TIR) channels 13 and 14. In addition, ASTER LST and MODIS LST products were also collected. All the LST images were assessed by analyzing the relationship between LST and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and by spatial distributions of LST profiles, derived from typical transects over the LST images. In this study, a strong negative relationship between LST and NDVI has been demonstrated although the degree of correlation between NDVI and LST varies slightly among the different LST images. Cross-validation among the LST images retrieved from the three thermal sensors of different spatial resolutions indicates that the LST images retrieved from the 2 channel ASTER data and a single band TABI thermal image using our developed algorithms are reliable. The LST images retrieved from the three sensors should have different potential to urban environmental studies. The MODIS thermal sensor can be used for the synoptic overview of an urban area and for studying urban thermal environment. The ASTER, with its TIR subsystem of 90-m resolution, allows for a more accurate determination of thermal patterns and properties of urban land use/land cover types, and hence, a more accurate determination of the LST. In consideration of the high heterogeneity of urban environment, the TABI thermal image, with a high spatial resolution of 2 m, can be used for rendering and assessing complex urban thermal patterns and detailed distribution of LST at the individual house level more accurately.     

Multi-sensor model-data fusion for estimation of hydrologic and energy flux parameters

Model-data fusion offers considerable promise in remote sensing for improved state and parameter estimation particularly when applied to multi-sensor image products. This paper demonstrates the application of a ‘multiple constraints’ model-data fusion (MCMDF) scheme to integrating AMSR-E soil moisture content (SMC) and MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data products with a coupled biophysical model of surface moisture and energy budgets for savannas of northern Australia. The focus in this paper is on the methods, difficulties and error sources encountered in developing an MCMDF scheme and enhancements for future schemes. An important aspect of the MCMDF approach emphasized here is the identification of inconsistencies between model and data, and among data sets.The MCMDF scheme was able to identify that an inconsistency existed between AMSR-E SMC and LST data when combined with the coupled SEB-MRT model. For the example presented, an optimal fit to both remote sensing data sets together resulted in an 84% increase in predicted SMC and 0.06% increase for LST relative to the fit to each data set separately. That is the model predicted on average cooler LST's (∼ 1.7 K) and wetter SMC values (∼ 0.04 g cm^− 3) than the satellite image products. In this instance we found that the AMSR-E SMC data on their own were poor constraints on the model. Incorporating LST data via the MCMDF scheme ameliorated deficiencies in the SMC data and resulted in enhanced characterization of the land surface soil moisture and energy balance based on comparison with the MODIS evapotranspiration (ET) product of Mu et al. [Mu, Q., Heinsch, F.A, Zhao, M. and Running, S.W. (in press), Development of a global evapotranspiration algorithm based on MODIS and global meteorology data, Remote Sensing of Environment.]. Canopy conductance, g_C, and latent heat flux, λE, from the MODIS ET product were in good agreement with RMSEs for g_C = 0.5 mm s^− 1 and for λE = 18 W m^− 2, respectively. Differences were attributable to a greater canopy-to-air vapor pressure gradient in the MCMDF approach obtained from a more realistic partitioning of soil surface and canopy temperatures.     

An assessment of photosynthetic light use efficiency from space: Modeling the atmospheric and directional impacts on PRI reflectance

Estimation of photosynthetic light use efficiency (ε) from satellite observations is an important component of climate change research. The photochemical reflectance index, a narrow waveband index based on the reflectance at 531 and 570 nm, allows sampling of the photosynthetic activity of leaves; upscaling of these measurements to landscape and global scales, however, remains challenging. Only a few studies have used spaceborne observations of PRI so far, and research has largely focused on the MODIS sensor. Its daily global coverage and the capacity to detect a narrow reflectance band at 531 nm make it the best available choice for sensing ε from space. Previous results however, have identified a number of key issues with MODIS-based observations of PRI. First, the differences between the footprint of eddy covariance (EC) measurements and the MODIS footprint, which is determined by the sensor's observation geometry make a direct comparison between both data sources challenging and second, the PRI reflectance bands are affected by atmospheric scattering effects confounding the existing physiological signal. In this study we introduce a new approach for upscaling EC based ε measurements to MODIS. First, EC-measured ε values were “translated” into a tower-level optical PRI signal using AMSPEC, an automated multi-angular, tower-based spectroradiometer instrument. AMSPEC enabled us to adjust tower-measured PRI values to the individual viewing geometry of each MODIS overpass. Second, MODIS data were atmospherically corrected using a Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm, which uses a time series approach and an image-based rather than pixel-based processing for simultaneous retrievals of atmospheric aerosol and surface bidirectional reflectance (BRDF). Using this approach, we found a strong relationship between tower-based and spaceborne reflectance measurements (r² = 0.74, p < 0.01) throughout the vegetation period of 2006. Swath (non-gridded) observations yielded stronger correlations than gridded data (r² = 0.58, p < 0.01) both of which included forward and backscatter observations. Spaceborne PRI values were strongly related to canopy shadow fractions and varied with different levels of ε. We conclude that MAIAC-corrected MODIS observations were able to track the site-level physiological changes from space throughout the observation period.     

Evaluation of satellite based primary production modelling in the semi-arid Sahel

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) primary productivity products are evaluated against observed Above-ground Net Primary Production (AGNPP) in the semi-arid Senegal 2001. MODIS net primary productivity (NPP) modelling is a light use efficiency (LUE) based approach incorporating constraints on vegetation productivity arising from simulated radiation, water demand and temperature data from NASA's Data Assimilation Office (DAO). Annually integrated MODIS PSN (MOD17A2 net photosynthesis, Collection 4) explains more of the observed biomass variation (r² = 0.77) than MODIS fAPAR (fraction Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Collection 4) (r² = 0.72), indicating the effect of including the canopy stress scalar (ε_s) based on DAO data combined with modelled maintenance respiration costs (of leaf and fine roots). Annual MODIS NPP (MOD17A3, Collection 4 (C4) and Collection 4.5 (C4.5)) including growth respiration and live wood maintenance respiration costs and modified DAO input (C4.5) however increases the residual unexplained observed AGNPP variance (C4 NPP; r² = 0.49) (C4.5 NPP; r² = 0.37). The overall quality of the annual NPP MODIS C4 and C4.5 products are moderate for the semi-arid Senegal because of the annual respiration cost modelling and a change in C4.5 biome-specific parameters stored in a Biome Properties Look-Up Table (BPLUT) is the main contributor to the observed discrepancy between C4 and C4.5 NPP. The dynamic range of the values of all MOD17 products was too low when compared to observed AGNPP. An estimate of canopy water stress (SIWSI; Shortwave Infrared Water Stress Index) derived from MODIS channels 2 and 6 and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) irradiance derived from geostationary METEOSAT data were tested for primary production modelling using a stepwise linear regression analysis. PAR irradiance was combined with MODIS fAPAR into APAR (Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation) explaining 79% of the observed AGNPP variation. Introducing SIWSI significantly increased the explained variance of observed AGNPP (r² = 0.89). MODIS-derived percentage tree cover was tested as a predictor based on the hypothesis that tree cover provides information on differences in respiratory costs between trees and grasses thereby accounting for variations in the LUE conversion efficiency ε. No significant reduction in residual unexplained AGNPP variance was found. Earth observation based derivation of PAR and canopy water stress from SIWSI suggest potential improvements to primary production models in semi-arid biomes that can be implemented in general NPP modelling LUE methodology.