In this study we examine the relationship between remotely sensed, in situ and modelled land surface temperature (LST) over a heterogeneous land-cover (LC) enclosed in alpine terrain. This relationship can help to understand to what extent the remotely sensed data can be used to improve model simulations of land surface parameters such as LST in mountainous areas. LST from the MODerate resoluti...

Remote sensing of sea surface temperature (SST) is widely used in climate science because it provides a quasi-synoptic coverage of the ocean. However, the use of these data for near-shore habitats is hindered by the proximity of the coast, therefore further investigation is needed. We compared remote-sensing SST from the MODIS sensor (aboard the Aqua satellite) to near-shore seawater temperatur...

Strong seasonal variations in regional aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (AOD) and aerosol type were investigated over China’s Bohai Rim based upon six years’ worth of data from four sites. Aerosol loading was higher and particle sizes were larger in the spring and summer than in the autumn or winter in the region. The regional mean background AOD and Angstrom exponent (a) were 0.20 0.03 and 0.74...

For many parameters derived from satellite imagery, the accurate detection of clouds is essential. The determination of cloud or no cloud for each pixel is known as a cloud mask. Cloud masks are used to filter out cloudy pixels for clear-sky retrievals such as land and sea surface temperature and total precipitable water, and also to detect clouds for cloud parameter retrievals such as cloud ph...

On global and regional scales, earth observation (EO)-based estimates of leaf area index (LAI) provide valuable input to climate and hydrologic modelling, while fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) is a key variable in the assessment of vegetation productivity and yield estimates. Validation of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) LAI and fAPAR produ...

Leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR) absorbed by vegetation are key variables in many global models of climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecology. These parameters are being operationally produced from Terra and Aqua MODIS bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) data. The MODIS science team has developed, and plans to release, a new version of th...

Daily, or more frequent, maps of surface water have important applications in environmental and water resource management. In particular, surface water maps derived from remote sensing imagery play a useful role in the derivation of spatial inundation patterns over time. MODIS data provide the most realistic means to achieve this since they are daily, although they are often limited by cloud co...

The MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is one of the key instruments for the NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS). MODIS ProtoFlight Model (PFM) was launched on-board the EOS Terra spacecraft on December 18, 1999 and the MODIS Flight Model (FM-1) was launched on-board the EOS Aqua spacecraft on May 4, 2002. MODIS has 36 spectral bands with wavelengths ranging from 0.41 to 14.5...

We investigated utilization of Japanese geostationary meteorological satellite, Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) data which is able to provide hourly image to a terrestrial monitoring. Firstly, SZA angular effect in reflectance channel was corrected, then algorithms for daily composite were compared. Hourly measurement of MTSAT increased the chance of observing cloud-free land surfa...

Sampling designs are commonly used to estimate deforestation over large areas, but comparisons between different sampling strategies are required. Using PRODES deforestation data as a reference, deforestation in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil from 2005 to 2006 is evaluated using Landsat imagery and a nearly synchronous MODIS dataset. The MODIS-derived deforestation is used to assist in samp...