Dragon 5 co-operation on all-weather LST

  • Contact:

    Frank Göttsche

    Axel Göbel

  • Funding:

    data & logistic support by ESA and National Remote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC)

  • Start Date:

    2021

  • End Date:

    2024

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the main quantities governing the energy exchange between surface and atmosphere. On the extensive Tibetan Plateau (TP), where in-situ observations are usually extremely sparse, accurate knowledge of the land surface energy balance is crucial for understanding and simulating regional processes of meteorology, hydrology and ecology.  More specifically, all-weather LST products are required for accurately simulating soil heat transfer, which provides insights into changes in TP permafrost / seasonally frozen ground and regional climate change. However, a major limitation of LST products based on thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing is that they are limited to clear sky conditions. Recently two all-weather satellite LST products became available: these will be inter-compared, validated and used to simulate and study freeze / thaw on the TP.