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Multi-sensor approach for high space and time resolution land surface temperature
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  • Ankur Rashmikant Desai,
  • Anam Munir Khan,
  • Ting Zheng,
  • Sreenath Paleri,
  • Brian J. Butterworth,
  • Temple R. Lee,
  • Joshua B Fisher,
  • Glynn Hulley,
  • Tania Kleynhans,
  • Aaron Gerace,
  • Philip A Townsend,
  • Paul Christopher Stoy,
  • Stefan Metzger
Ankur Rashmikant Desai
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Anam Munir Khan
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Ting Zheng
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Sreenath Paleri
Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Brian J. Butterworth
Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Temple R. Lee
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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Joshua B Fisher
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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Glynn Hulley
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
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Tania Kleynhans
Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Aaron Gerace
Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Philip A Townsend
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Paul Christopher Stoy
University of Wisconsin - Madison
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Stefan Metzger
NEON Program, Battelle
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Abstract

Surface-atmosphere fluxes and their drivers vary across space and time. A growing area of interest is in downscaling, localizing, and/or resolving sub-grid scale energy, water, and carbon fluxes and drivers. Existing downscaling methods require inputs of land surface properties at relatively high spatial (e.g., sub-kilometer) and temporal (e.g., hourly) resolutions, but many observed land surface drivers are not available at these resolutions. We evaluate an approach to overcome this challenge for land surface temperature (LST), a World Meteorological Organization Essential Climate Variable and a key driver for surface heat fluxes. The Chequamegon Heterogenous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors (CHEESEHEAD19) field experiment provided a scalable testbed. We downscaled LST from satellites (GOES-16 and ECOSTRESS) with further refinement using airborne hyperspectral imagery. Temporally and spatially downscaled LST compared well to observations from a network of 20 micrometeorological towers and airborne in addition to Landsat-based LST retrieval and drone-based LST observed at one tower site. The downscaled 50-meter hourly LST showed good relationships with tower (r2=0.79, precision=3.5 K) and airborne (r2=0.75, precision=2.4 K) observations over space and time, with precision lower over wetlands and lakes, and some improvement for capturing spatio-temporal variation compared to geostationary satellite. Further downscaling to 10 m using hyperspectral imagery resolved hotspots and cool spots on the landscape detected in drone LST, with significant improvement in precision by 1.3 K. These results demonstrate a simple pathway for multi-sensor retrieval of high space and time resolution LST.