DIRS Meeting - Field Radiometer for Land Surface Temperature Validation

Field Radiometer for Land Surface Temperature ValidationJonathan MillerPh.D. StudentChester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, RITAbstract:Land Surface Temperature (LST) represents the radiative temperature of the Earth’s surface and is used as input to hydrological, agricultural, and meteorological science applications. Due to the synoptic nature of spaceborne thermal instruments, an emphasis has been made in the past two decades to develop the algorithms necessary to deliver accurate surface temperature products for several imaging systems (e.g. MODIS, AVHRR, GOES, VIIRS and most recently, Landsat) to support the needs of science users. However, a corresponding effort to validate these products is lacking, e.g., NOAA’s Surface Radiation Budget network (SURFRAD) is commonly used to support ST-validation efforts despite inadequacies in their instrumentation for estimation of surface temperature. To address the deficiencies in existing validation network instrumentation, this work discusses a prototype radiometer that developed specifically to provide surface temperature estimates to support validation efforts for spaceborne thermal instruments. Specifically, a prototype radiometer was develop and used to validate Landsat 8's Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) higher-level ST product(s). Lab-based efforts indicate that these instruments are accurate to within 0.5 [K] and initial field measurements demonstrate agreement to Landsat-derived products to within 2 [K].Speaker Bio:Jon Miller is an Imaging Science PhD student in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He holds a bachelor's degree in Astronautical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy, and a master's degree in Imaging Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Jon has experience in the design, fabrication, launch, and operations of remote sensing satellites, as well as teaching experience being a former instructor of Astronautics at the Air Force Academy. Jon's research interests are in thermal imaging and earth observation remote sensing.Intended Audience:No background knowledge needed. All are welcome.