Estimation of 1 km Dawn-Dusk All-Sky Land Surface Temperature Using a Random Forest-Based Reanalysis and Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing Data Merging (RFRTM) Method.

Abstract

All-sky 1 km land surface temperature (LST) data are urgently needed. Two widely applied approaches to derive such LST data are merging thermal infrared remote sensing (TIR)-passive microwave remote sensing (PMW) observations and merging TIR reanalysis data. However, as only the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is adopted as the TIR source for merging, current 1 km all-sky LST products are limited to the MODIS observation time. Therefore, a gap still remains in terms of all-sky LST data with a higher temporal resolution or at other times (e.g., dawn-dusk time). Under this background, this study merged the observations of the Medium Resolution Spectrum Imager (MERSI-LL) on board the dusk-dawn-orbit Fengyun (FY)-3E satellite and Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) data to estimate dawn-dusk 1 km all-sky LST using a random forest-based method (RFRTM). The results showed that the model had good robustness, with an STD of 0.62-0.86 K of the RFRTM LST, compared with the original MERSI-LL LST. Validation against in situ LST showed that the estimated LST had an accuracy of 1.34-3.71 K under all-sky conditions. In addition, compared with the dawn-dusk LST merged from MERSI-LL and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMI/S), the RFRTM LST showed better performance in accuracy and image quality. This study's findings are beneficial for filling the gap in all-sky LST at high spatiotemporal resolutions for associated applications.