Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume
251
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Publication Date
9-8-2020
Award Number
NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration NNX17AF51G
Funder
NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
First Page
1
Last Page
23
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Land surface temperature (LST) is a key diagnostic indicator of agricultural water use and crop stress. LST data retrieved from thermal infrared (TIR) band imagery, however, tend to have a coarser spatial resolution (e.g., 100 m for Landsat 8) than surface reflectance (SR) data collected from shortwave bands on the same instrument (e.g., 30 m for Landsat). Spatial sharpening of LST data using the higher resolution multi-band SR data provides an important path for improved agricultural monitoring at sub-field scales. A previously developed Data Mining Sharpener (DMS) approach has shown great potential in the sharpening of Landsat LST using Landsat SR data co-collected over various landscapes. This work evaluates DMS performance for sharpening ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) LST (~70 m native resolution) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) LST (375 m) data using Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) SR data, providing the basis for generating 30-m LST data at a higher temporal frequency than afforded by Landsat alone. To account for the misalignment between ECOSTRESS/VIIRS and Landsat/HLS caused by errors in registration and orthorectification, we propose a modified version of the DMS approach that employs a relaxed box size for energy conservation (EC). Sharpening experiments were conducted over three study sites in California, and results were evaluated visually and quantitatively against LST data from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) flights and from Landsat 8. Over the three sites, the modified DMS technique showed improved sharpening accuracy over the standard DMS for both ECOSTRESS and VIIRS, suggesting the effectiveness of relaxing EC box in relieving misalignment-induced errors. To achieve reasonable accuracy while minimizing loss of spatial detail due to the EC box size increase, an optimal EC box size of 180–270 m was identified for ECOSTRESS and about 780 m for VIIRS data based on experiments from the three sites. Results from this work will facilitate the development of a prototype system that generates high spatiotemporal resolution LST products for improved agricultural water use monitoring by synthesizing multi-source remote sensing data.
Recommended Citation
Jie Xue, Martha C. Anderson, Feng Gao, Christopher Hain, Liang Sun, Yun Yang, Kyle R. Knipper, William P. Kustas, Alfonso Torres-Rua, Mitch Schull, Sharpening ECOSTRESS and VIIRS land surface temperature using harmonized Landsat-Sentinel surface reflectances, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 251, 2020, 112055, ISSN 0034-4257, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.112055.
