Land Surface Temperature Measurements from EOS MODIS Data MODIS Team Member PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

A recent revision of the MODIS Land-Surface Temperature Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (LST ATBD) was completed in April. A paper on the vicarious calibration of MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) thermal infrared channels based on the MAS data and field measurement data acquired in the field campaign conducted in Mono Lake, California, on March 10, 1998, was submitted in February, revised in June and accepted in July. The at-launch version of the MODIS Proto-Flight Model (PFM) relative spectral response (RSR) function was used to generate the look-up tables that will be used in the operational generation of the at-launch MODIS LST products. Comprehensive tests of the MODIS LST code were made jointly with the MODIS Science Data Support Team (SDST) using the simulated MODIS data. Measurements of the atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles were made in a field campaign conducted in the Mono Lake area in late March and early April in order to obtain some information of the annual variation in the clear-sky atmospheric conditions during the winter/spring reasons over the area. A PC video card is used to store temperature images from an AGEMA IR camera on disk at a higher speed. It was confirmed that the error in the temperature images can be significantly reduced by temporal and spatial averages. This makes it possible for the IR camera to provide useful information of the LST temporal and spatial variations in the field campaigns that have been planned for the vicarious calibration of MODIS TIR channels and the validation of MODIS LST products. Numerical simulations have been initiated for the development of LST algorithms for the MODIS PM model. Recent Paper Accepted Z. Wan, Y. Zhang, X. Ma, M. D. King, J. S. Myers, and X. Li, "Vicarious calibration of MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) thermal infrared channels", Applied Optics, original manuscript submitted in February, revised in June, and accepted in July 1999.