An operative Land Surface Temperature split-window algorithm: Application to the Korean Peninsula Pathfinder AVHRR land data

The global surface temperature has increased since the beginning of the instrumental record in 1861 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Over the 20th century the increase was greater than 0.6 degrees C. The rate of change for the period since 1976 is roughly three times that for the past 1011 years as a whole. Analyses of proxy data for the Northern Hemisphere indicate that late 20th century warmth is unprecedented for at least the past millennium. In the Northern Hemisphere, the 1990s were the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year in file past 1000 Years. Land Surface Temperature (LST) plays an important role in the cycle of the natural ecosystem evolution and can be used as an indicator to quantify changes in the physical characteristics of land cover. LST retrieval from satellite data is mainly influenced by the atmosphere and surface emissivity. If both effects are not corrected for the error in LST may be very large (up to 12 K). In order to (obtain accurate estimations of LST, an operative Split-Window (SW) algorithm with an error of estimation of 1.3 K is presented. This SNV algorithm does not need any external data than those provided by satellite. Before applying the operative SW algorithm to satellite images. an evaluation study has been previously carried out in which the algorithm was compared to (other algorithms existing in the bibliography. The Pathfinder AVHRR Land (PAL) data has been used for the application of the operative SW algorithm. The PAL data corresponds to all the months of 1998. The Korean Peninsula was selected as the area of study due 14) its high environmental diversity. Korea is located in the temperate zone, with Four distinct seasons (spring, summer. autumn and winter). Due to the Korean Peninsula's long north-south stretch and topographic complexity, there are wide variations in temperature and rainfall. The mean temperature throughout file four seasons ranges from 5 degrees C to 16 degrees C and rainfall from 500 to 1500 millimeters.