DIURNAL BEHAVIOR OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE IN LUT DESERT

analyses and thermal infrared channels 4 and 5 NOAA- AVHRR images. This research was carried out in Lut Desert located in center of sub-tropical divergence dominant in' Iranian plateau. The physical and thermal properties of the various desert surfaces have been determined using correlation relationships between the desert variables including: dark sand, normal sand, marl, saline soil, soil depth (10 cm), wet and dry bulb temperature in daytimes with the interval of two hours from 6 AM to 20 P.M within 15 days. The result shows that thermal conductivity, thermal capacity, physico-chemical properties of the studied materials and other thermal properties, are the most important factors affecting correlation coefficients. The highest correlation obtained around the sunrise (6 AM) and especially before and after the sunset (18, 20 P.M). Minimum correlations were obtained around the noon at soil depth and the best fitted models are linear for light sand and marl in 18, 20 P.M and non-linear for soil depth and marl in 18 P.M. Therefore it is generally concluded that the study of diurnal behavior of land surface temperatures might be useful for thermal image interpretation.