Validation of the Modified Becker's Split-Window Approach for Retrieving Land Surface Temperature from AVHRR

To further verify the modified Becker's split-window approach for retrieving land surface temperature (LST) from long-term Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data, a cross-validation and a radiance-based (R-based) validation are performed and examined in this paper. In the cross-validation, 3481 LST data pairs are extracted from the AVHRR LST product retrieved with the modified Becker's approach and compared with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST product (MYD11A1) for the period 2002-2008, relative to the positions of 548 weather stations in China. The results show that in most cases, the AVHRR LST values are higher than the MYD11A1. When the AVHRR LSTs are adjusted with a linear regression, the values are close to the MYD11A1, showing a good linear relationship between the two datasets (R2=0.91). In the R-based validation, comparison is made between AVHRR LST retrieved from the modified Becker's approach and the inversed LST from the Moderate Resolution Transmittance Model (MODTRAN) consolidated with observed temperature and humidity profiles at four radiosonde stations. The results show that the retrieved AVHRR LST deviates from the MODTRAN inversed LST by -1.3 (-2.5) K when the total water vapor amount is less (larger) than 20 mm. This provides useful hints for further improvement of the LST retrieval algorithms' accuracy and consistency.