''Land Surface Temperature and Remote Sensing'''
In mountain areas, Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key parameter in the surface energy budget and it is controlled by the complex interplay of topography, incoming radiation, atmospheric processes, as well as by the soil moisture distribution and the different land covers and vegetation types.
Since LST can be easily retrieved by thermal remote sensing, this parameter is becoming increasingly useful in order to map the spatial distribution of surface fluxes, vegetation types and status, urban heat islands and land cover classification.
The GEOtop model is able to simulate LST, because it describes the energy and mass exchanges between soil, vegetation, and atmosphere, accounting for land cover, soil moisture, the effects of elevation on air temperature, and of slope and aspect on solar radiation.
The model has been used to simulate the LST spatial distribution in Alpine valleys and the results have been compared with ground and Landsat observations to evaluate the relative importance of the different environmental factors controlling LST in complex terrain.
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In the Figure the Landsat retrieved LST for the Stubai valley in the Austrian Alps on the 13th of September 1999 at 10.50 AM (above) and the GEOtop simulated LST for the same day (below).
Source: Bertoldi G., Notarnicola C., Leitinger G., Endrizzi S., Zebisch M., and Tappeiner U., Morphological and ecohydrological controls on land surface temperature in an Alpine catchment, Ecohydrology, under revision, 2009.