Satellite-Derived Land Surface Temperature Dynamics in the Context of Global Change—A Review

Abstract

Satellite-derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) dynamics have been increasingly used to study various geophysical processes. This review provides an extensive overview of the applications of LST in the context of global change. By filtering a selection of relevant keywords, a total of 164 articles from 14 international journals published during the last two decades were analyzed based on study location, research topic, applied sensor, spatio-temporal resolution and scale and employed analysis methods. It was revealed that China and the USA were the most studied countries and those that had the most first author affiliations. The most prominent research topic was the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI), while the research topics related to climate change were underrepresented. MODIS was by far the most used sensor system, followed by Landsat. A relatively small number of studies analyzed LST dynamics on a global or continental scale. The extensive use of MODIS highly determined the study periods: A majority of the studies started around the year 2000 and thus had a study period shorter than 25 years. The following suggestions were made to increase the utilization of LST time series in climate research: The prolongation of the time series by, e.g., using AVHRR LST, the better representation of LST under clouds, the comparison of LST to traditional climate change measures, such as air temperature and reanalysis variables, and the extension of the validation to heterogenous sites.

Land surface temperature variations in a low-latitude high-altitude mountainous area of southwest China

“…Land surface temperature (LST) is a vital variable in surface energy budget and water cycles, as well as in the study of various geophysical processes such as climate, hydrology, and ecology (Eleftheriou et al, 2017;NourEldeen et al, 2020;Shiff et al, 2021;Reiners et al, 2023). It is significantly affected by interactions between the earth's surface and atmosphere (Abera et al, 2020;Bayable and Alemu, 2022).…”

“…The large spatial heterogeneity of LST can trigger local circulations through land surfaceatmosphere interactions (Pan et al, 2021), resulting in important impacts on the regional climate and eco-environment. Moreover, LST is also important in reflecting climate change and increasingly frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires (Du et al, 2020;NourEldeen et al, 2020;Pan et al, 2021;Song et al, 2021;Agathangelidis et al, 2022;Reiners et al, 2023). A clear warming occurs in most parts of the world over the past few decades.…”

Urban growth’s implications on land surface temperature in a medium-sized European city based on LCZ classification

“…The most popular sensor used for the research on LST is Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 39 . The entire Earth surface is orbited every one to two days utilising 36 bands with spatial resolution from 250 to 1000 m 40 .…”

“…Landsat products are characterized by higher spatial resolutions, from 30 to 120 m, but lower temporal resolution, with revisits every ~ 16 days. However, Landsat starts from 1982 and provides the longer data series than MODIS 39 , 40 . Studies on urban areas are focused on characterising the difference between urban and non-urban areas which does not require high temporal resolution 39 but higher spatial resolution.…”

“…However, Landsat starts from 1982 and provides the longer data series than MODIS 39 , 40 . Studies on urban areas are focused on characterising the difference between urban and non-urban areas which does not require high temporal resolution 39 but higher spatial resolution. In this study MODIS 8-day LST product was used in modelling coupled with the Copernicus imperviousness density product (IMD).…”