High spatial and temporal resolution Land Surface Temperature for surface energy fluxes estimation

The study of urban climate and the estimation of urban energy fluxes requires frequent and accurate monitoring of land surface temperature (LST), at the local scale. Current and forthcoming space-borne sensors though, do not provide frequent thermal infrared imagery at high spatial and temporal resolution. In this study, a downscaling technique is applied for improving the spatial resolution of thermal infrared observations and the subsequent LST estimation. LST maps of 100 m spatial resolution multiple times per day were derived for three cities, London, United Kingdom, Basel, Switzerland and Heraklion, Greece. The maps were validated using radiation measurements from flux towers. The accuracy of the derived maps was also assessed using LST data from ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer).