Evaluation of Land Surface Temperature Operationally Retrieved from Korean Geostationary Satellite (COMS) Data

We evaluated the precision of land surface temperature (LST) operationally retrieved from the Korean multipurpose geostationary satellite, Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS). The split-window (SW)-type retrieval algorithm was developed through radiative transfer model simulations under various atmospheric profiles, satellite zenith angles, surface emissivity values and surface lapse rate conditions using Moderate Resolution Atmospheric Transmission version 4 (MODTRAN4). The estimation capabilities of the COMS SW (CSW) LST algorithm were evaluated for various impacting factors, and the retrieval accuracy of COMS LST data was evaluated with collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST data. The surface emissivity values for two SW channels were generated using a vegetation cover method. The CSW algorithm estimated the LST distribution reasonably well (averaged bias = 0.00 K, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 1.41 K, correlation coefficient = 0.99); however, the estimation capabilities of the CSW algorithm were significantly impacted by large brightness temperature differences and surface lapse rates. The CSW algorithm reproduced spatiotemporal variations of LST comparing well to MODIS LST data, irrespective of what month or time of day the data were collected from. The one-year evaluation results with MODIS LST data showed that the annual mean bias, RMSE and correlation coefficient for the CSW algorithm were −1.009 K, 2.613 K and 0.988, respectively.