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The North American ASTER Land Surface Emissivity Database v3.0

Glynn C. Hulley, JPL, glynn.hulley@jpl.nasa.gov (Presenter)
Simon J. Hook, JPL, simon.j.hook@jpl.nasa.gov (Presenter)

One of the key Earth Science Data Records (ESDRs) identified by NASA is Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST&E). LST&E data are important parameters in global climate change studies that involve climate modeling, ice dynamic analyses, surface-atmosphere interactions and land use, land cover change. Accurate knowledge of the Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) in the Thermal Infrared (TIR: 8-12 um) part of the electromagnetic spectrum is essential to derive accurate Land Surface Temperatures (LSTs) from spaceborne TIR measurements. TIR data are supplied by instruments on several satellite platforms including the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER), which was launched on NASA's Terra satellite in 1999. ASTER has five bands in the TIR and a spatial resolution of 90 m. A mean seasonal, gridded, LST&E database has been produced at 100 m spatial resolution using all the ASTER scenes acquired for the months of Jan-Mar (winter) and Jul-Sep (summer) over North America and Africa. Version 3.0 of the North American ASTER Land Surface Database (NAALSED) has been released and is available for download from http://emissivity.jpl.nasa.gov. The NAALSED was validated over bare surfaces with laboratory measurements of sand samples collected at nine pseudo-invariant sand dune sites located in the western/southwestern USA. The nine sand dune sites cover a broad range of LSE's in the TIR. Results show that the absolute mean LSE difference between NAALSED and the laboratory results for the nine validation sites and all five ASTER TIR bands was 0.016 (1.6 %). The NAALSED is the most accurate, and highest resolution emissivity dataset currently available for Earth science studies.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Coupled Processes at Land-Atmosphere-Ocean Interfaces   (Mon 4:00 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

  • Hook, Simon: In Flight Validation of ASTER and MODIS Mid and Thermal Infrared Data and Products and ASTER Product Refinement for Earth Science ...details
  • Hook, Simon: In-Flight Validation of ASTER, MODIS and VIIRS Mid and Thermal Infrared Data and Products for Earth Science ...details

Poster Location ID: 37

 


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