VICARIOUS CALIBRATION OF LANDSAT-8 THERMAL DATA COLLECTIONS AND ITS
INFLUENCE ON SPLIT-WINDOW ALGORITHM VALIDATION
Skoković, D., Sobrino, J. A., Jiménez, J. C., Sòria, G., Julien, Y., Gomis-Cebolla, J., García-Monteiro, S.
Global Change Unit, Image Processing Laboratory, University of Valencia, Spain. E-mail:
drazen.skokovic@uv.es
ABSTRACT
Landsat 8 (L8) satellite was launched on February 11, 2013
with two thermal bands located in the atmospheric window
between 10-12 µm. Continuous monitoring of the Thermal
Infrared Sensor (TIRS) onboard of L8 was performed over
two Spanish test sites – Barrax and Doñana – in order to
contribute to the quality of TIRS data. In this work, a
Vicarious Calibration (VC) of the TIRS bands was
performed between years 2013-2016 in order to assess the
new Stray Light (SL) data correction. The results of VC
show us that band 10 and 11 provide accurate results (bias
near to zero, and precision around 0.8 K) which is an
improvement – especially for band 11 – in comparison to
preprocessed SL data. This little better performance has
direct influence on Split Window (SW) algorithm, lowering
its standard deviation into 0.3 K, as is shown in this work.
Index Terms— Vicarious Calibration, Landsat-8,
Thermal Infrared, Land surface temperature, Split Window
1. INTRODUCTION
Calibration, in our case, of Thermal Infra-Red (TIR)
bands is essential to ensure highly consistent and accurate
values of Earth Observation (EO) sensors [1]. VC refers to
techniques that make use of natural or artificial sites on the
surface of the Earth for the post-launch calibration.
Calibrations problems in the TIR bands have been
detected and solved with the VC techniques in the Landsat
series [2-5], providing a high quality long-term (since 80s)
high spatial resolution (from 60 m as Landsat-7 to 120 m as
Landsat-4 and 5) TIR data. The launch of the Landsat-8
(L8) satellite, currently with near six years of continuous
images, ensures the continuity of the TIR data. The previous
Landsat series included sensors with only one single TIR
band, whereas the L8 satellite includes a TIRS with two
bands (10.3-11.3 µm, and 11.5-12.5 µm), thus offering new
opportunities for the development of Land Surface
Temperature (LST) retrieval algorithms. This option was
explored in recent publications, where a Split-Window (SW)
algorithm was proposed for the L8 TIRS bands and
compared to the Single-Channel algorithm developed for the
single TIR band of the previous Landsat series [6].
978-1-5386-7150-4/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
LST retrieval algorithms for L8 presented in [6] were
developed and tested using only simulated data due to a
calibration problem of TIRS bands caused by SL [7]. The
SL is an unwanted light entering into the sensor by ghosting
or scattering and dependent on scene or pixel location [8].
This problem was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) on February 2014, and all the L8 archive was
reprocessed on April 25, 2017 providing new calibration
coefficients (additional information is available in the
Mission Headlines at
http://landsat.usgs.gov/calibration_notices.php).
The objective of this work is not to analyze the SL, but to
assess the accuracy of the recalibration in comparison to pre
stray light correction values using ground-based
measurements over land surfaces in two different Spanish
test sites. Additionally, the performance of SW algorithm
was analyzed with old and new calibration values.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1. Algorithms
VC of TIR bands can be performed from both ground-based
measurements of radiance or surface temperature [9-10].
Since the radiance-based approach requires a field
radiometer with similar spectral bands than the sensor to be
calibrated, we used a temperature-based approach for the
VC of L8 TIRS bands. In this approach, the at-sensor
radiance (Lsen) is predicted from the Radiative Transfer
Equation (RTE) given by
Lsen =BTs +(1- )Ld   +L u (1)
where ε is the surface emissivity, BTs is the Planck function
for a given temperature Ts, and τ, Lu, and Ld are the
atmospheric transmissivity, the up-welling atmospheric
radiance (or path radiance), and the down-welling
atmospheric radiance, respectively. Except for Ts, all the
magnitudes involved in Eq. 1 are spectral magnitudes, so
they need to be spectrally averaged using the spectral
response function of a given TIR band. Note that the
temperature-based method requires the measurement of both
surface spectral emissivity and temperature, added to the
atmospheric parameters (τ, Ld, Lu).
4312 IGARSS 2018
LST has been retrieved with SW algorithm [6] which uses
both L8 thermal bands.
2
𝑇𝑆 = 𝑇𝑖 + 𝑎0 + 𝑎1 (𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇𝑗 ) + 𝑎2 (𝑇𝑖 − 𝑇𝑗 ) + (𝑎3 +
𝑎4 𝑤)(1 − 𝜀) + (𝑎5 + 𝑎6 𝑤)Δ𝜀 (2)
where TS is the LST, Ti and Tj are the at-sensor brightness
temperatures at the SW bands i and j (in K), ε is the mean
LSE, ε = 0.5 (εi + εj), Δε is the LSE difference, Δε = εi - εj,
w is the total atmospheric water vapor content (in g·cm-2),
and a0 to a6 the SW coefficients to be determined from
simulated data.
2.2. Test sites
Figure 1. Plots of the fixed stations in Doñana (Cortes,
Fuente Duque and Juncabalejo) and Barrax (Las Tiesas) test
sites.
Two different areas in Spain were selected for sensor
calibration: i) the agricultural area of Barrax (Albacete;
39˚N, 2˚W, 700 m a.s.l.) and ii) the Doñana National Park
(Huelva; 37º N, 6º25’ W, sea level). Experimental sites have
different characteristics in terms of surface covers and sizes
of the samples which make them useful for the cal/val of
wide range of sensors. Stations were selected because of its
homogeneity that was previously studied in [11].
2.2.1. Barrax agricultural area
The agricultural area of Barrax is located in Albacete
(Spain, 39˚N, 2˚W), with flat terrains and the presence of
large, uniform land-use units (approx. ~100 ha), suitable for
validating moderate-resolution satellite image products. The
climate of Barrax is Mediterranean type, and most part of
the area is cultivated. It includes both dry land (e.g. winter
cereals, fallow) and irrigated land (e.g. corn, alfalfa). Data
of Las Tiesas (see Fig. 1), with three plot configurations
4313
along the year (green-senescent wheat and bare soil), was
used for VC.
2.2.2. Doñana National Park
The Doñana National Park is located in South West Spain,
near the Atlantic Ocean coast (Huelva, 37ºN, 6.4º W).
Approximately half of its extension is marshland area with
an extremely flat topography. The uniformity and extension
of marsh allows the calibration/validation of EO sensors at
high and low spatial resolutions. Data of Fuente Duque and
Juncabalejo stations, situated in marsh area, and Cortes
station, situated in a pine forest area, were used in VC (see
Fig. 1).
2.3. Field and atmospheric measurements
Thermal radiance was measured with broadband
radiometers (8-14 µm) with a precision of ±0.2 K. In order
to obtain the LST from the measurements, brightness
temperature was corrected from ground-based
measurements of surface emissivity, and also from down-
welling irradiance. Finally, applying Planck’s law, the LST
can be retrieved as:
(3)
where λ is the band wavelength (e.g. effective wavelength,
averaged from the spectral response function), Lsen the
measured sensor thermal radiance, Ld the down-welling
radiance, ε the surface emissivity, and c1 and c2 are the
Planck’s radiation constants, with values of 1.19104·108
W·µm4·m-2·sr-1 and 14387.7 µm·K, respectively.
Emissivity values are measured with the CIMEL CE
312-2 multiband radiometer, where the spectral emissivities
were obtained from application of the Temperature and
Emissivity Separation (TES) method to the thermal
radiances. Because the CIMEL and the radiometers
broadband presents slight spectral differences, a linear
correction obtained in [12] was used to obtain IR120 and
Apogge broadband radiometers emissivity.
The atmospheric parameters (τ, Ld, Lu, w) needed in Eq.
1, 2 and 3 have been obtained from MODIS atmospheric
profile (MOD07 version 6 product) and MODTRAN
(version 5) radiative transfer code [13-14]. MODTRAN
spectral outputs were finally convoluted with the spectral
response functions of L8 TIRS bands. To ensure the highest
precision on VC, only atmospheric measurements with total
water vapor content below 1.5 g/cm2 were used.
The expected accuracy of the in-situ measurements
depends of the precision of the above variables including the
heterogeneity of the test site analyzed in [11]. A complete
error analysis of our stations can be found in [12].
 3. RESULTS AND DISSCUSION
Predicted at-sensor radiances were compared to radiance
values extracted from the L8 TIRS imagery over our test
sites (Fig. 2). In total, 44 values were used for VC and 61
for SW validation. VC results are presented for each zone in
Table I and for all data in Table II, which include Pre SL
data (the old collection) and Post SL data (the new
collection). RMSE variability values between stations show
minimal differences (below 0.2 K, see Table I) for both
bands in the same data collection, which probably means an
equal SL effect at our stations, although the surroundings
differences associated to our plots (inland vs coastal location
for Barrax and Doñana, respectively).
In terms of application for LST retrieval algorithms
based on SW technique, a decrease on bias (in situ LST
minus SW LST) of 0.5 K is obtained between old and new
collection, with an improvement in precision (σ) and RMSE
of 0.3 K and 0.2 K respectively (see Figure 3 and Table III).
These results were expected as the performance of SW
algorithm is directly related to VC results. Regarding the
performance of SW algorithm, RMSE values of 1.6-1.8 K
have been obtained which agrees with the results of [6].
Although SW approach provides moderate uncertainty, we
emphasize that these results should be taken with caution,
since the stray light problem could influence TIRS bands
differently depending on the site and temporal period.
Table I. Results of VC between TIRS values versus in situ
predicted data for both test sites. Root Mean Square Error
(RMSE), bias and standard deviation are given in radiances
(W·m-2·sr-1·µm-1) and, in brackets, the equivalency in
temperatures at 300 K.
Old collection New collection
Barrax Doñana Barrax Doñana
nº values 16 28 16 28

Bias -0.02 -0.03 0.06 0.02

(-0.1) (-0.2) (0.5) (0.1)
VCB10 σ 0.11 0.11 0.10 0.10
Figure 2. TIRS minus predicted radiances versus the VC- (0.8) (0.8) (0.7) (0.7)
based radiance (predicted). Results are provided for the two RMSE 0.11 0.11 0.11 0.10
TIRS bands (b10 in blue and b11 in green) and for both data (0.8) (0.8) (0.9) (0.7)
collection. Bias -0.06 -0.06 0.00 -0.03
(-0.5) (-0.5) (0.1) (-0.2)
VCB11 σ 0.13 0.16 0.10 0.12
Regarding collection differences, the new collection (1.1) (1.3) (0.8) (1.0)
shows, in general, an increase of radiance values for both 0.14 0.17 0.10 0.12
RMSE
bands on TIRS, which lead to an increase of the bias of 0.05 (1.2) (1.4) (0.9) (1.0)
W·m-2·sr-1·µm-1 (calculated as TIRS radiance minus
predicted VC radiance, see Table II) in comparison to a Table II. Related with Table I and Figure 2. Main VC
previous collection. This highest radiance has corrected the statistics for both TIRS bands.
band 11 bias while band 10 has experimented a little grow Gain R2 bias  RMSE
to 0.3 K. Because the magnitude of standard deviation (σ) is -0.01 0.11 0.11
greater than bias, it can be considered negligible for both VCB10 Old 1.01±0.02 0.989
(-0.1) (0.8) (0.9)
bands. Additionally to bias change, the new collection 0.04 0.10 0.12
shows highest precision in both bands, with an improvement VCB10 New 1.00±0.02 0.990
(0.3) (0.7) (0.9)
of 0.1 K and 0.3 K at band 10 and 11, respectively. This -0.06 0.14 0.16
VCB11 Old 1.06±0.03 0.976
improvement can be also seen in the correlation coefficient (-0.5) (1.2) (1.4)
(R2) and in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), especially for VCB11 New 1.00±0.02 0.981
-0.01 0.11 0.11
band 11. Although the uncertainty reduction, this is not as (-0.1) (0.9) (0.9)
dramatic as reported by USGS, which VC has reduced the
standard deviation – in comparison to old collection – in 0.4 Table III. Bias, standard deviation (σ) and RMSE of SW
K and 0.8 K for band 10 and 11 respectively. algorithm for old and new data collection.
Results of VC retrieved in this work are referred to our Split Window LST (K)
test sites, but the results can be extrapolated to other regions Collection Bias σ RMSE
with similar surfaces and atmospheric conditions. In spite of In situ LST Old -0.4 1.7 1.8
test sites representing different land covers (bare soil, minus
vegetation and water) with a moderate emissivity range SW LST New -0.9 1.4 1.6
(0.95-0.99), VC over additional test sites is recommended in
order to test the performance of TIR bands.

4314

Figure 3. Comparison between in-situ LST minus SW LST
versus in-situ values. Results are provided for the both
collections (old in blue and new in green) and for both test
site.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Because of the current uncertainty on the performance of L8
TIRS bands and the new L8 data collection with a SL
correction, there is a need for reporting results on VC to
assess whether these bands can be really used for LST
retrieval purposes despite of the problems with SL and the
TIRS detectors. The VC presented in this letter has shown
an improvement in the precision of both TIRS bands in
comparison with previous L8 collection, especially for band
11. These results are in agreement with the results provided
by the USGS and suggest that band 10 and 11 can be used
for accurate LST retrieval. For this reason, SW algorithm
validation was also performed showing RMSE values
around 1.5 K with better performance of 0.2 K using the
new SL corrected data. However, we emphasize that these
results should be taken with caution, since long-term cal/val
activities over different sites are still required to extract
definitive conclusions.
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e
Innovación (CEOS-Spain2, ESP2014-52955-R), European
Union and Ministerio de Economía y Competitivdad (SIM
Project, PCIN-2015-232), and European Space Agency
(CALISTO project, AO ID 31281).
6. REFERENCES
[1] P.N. Slater, S.F. Biggar, K.J. Thome, D.I. Gellman and P.R.
Spyak. “Vicarious radiometric calibrations of EOS sensors”,
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol. 13, pp. 349-
359, 1996.
[2] J.A. Barsi, J.R. Schott, F.D. Palluconi, D.L. Helder, S.J. Hook,
B.L. Markham, G. Chander, E.M. O'Donnell “Landsat TM and
ETM+ thermal band calibration” Canadian Journal of Remote
Sensing, vol.29, no.2, pp. 141–153, 2003.
4315
[3] C. Coll, J. M. Galve, J. M. Sánchez, and V. Caselles,
“Validation of Landsat-7/ETM+ Thermal-Band Calibration and
Atmospheric Correction With Ground-Based Measurements”,
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 48,
no. 1, pp. 547–555, Jan. 2010.
[4] R. Schott, S. J. Hook, J. A. Barsi, B. L. Markham, J. Miller, F.
P. Padula, N. G. Raqueno, “Thermal Infrared Radiometric
Calibration of the Entire Landsat 4, 5, and 7 Archive (1982-2010)”,
Remote Sensing of Environment., vol. 122, pp. 41–49, July. 2012.
[5] D. Skoković, J.A. Sobrino and J.C. Jiménez-Muñoz. “Vicarious
Calibration of the Landsat 7 Thermal Infrared Band and LST
Algorithm Validation of the ETM+ Instrument Using Three Global
Atmospheric Profiles”. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and
Remote Sensing, DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2016.2633810, 2017.
[6] J. C. Jiménez-Muñoz, J. A. Sobrino, D. Skoković, C. Mattar,
and J. Cristóbal “Land Surface Temperature Retrieval Methods
From Landsat-8 Thermal Infrared Sensor Data”, IEEE Geoscience
and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 11, no. 10, October 2014.
[7] J. A. Barsi, J. R. Schott, S. J. Hook, N. G. Raqueno, B. L.
Markham and R. G. Radocinski. “Landsat-8 Thermal Infrared
Sensor (TIRS) Vicarious Radiometric Calibration.” Remote Sens.,
6, 11607-11626, 2014.
[8] H. Tonooka "Inflight straylight analysis for ASTER thermal
infrared bands," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing. vol.43, pp. 2752–2762, 2005.
[9] K. J. Thome, S. Schiller, J. E. Conel, K. Arai, S.
Tsuchida,“Results of the 1996 Earth Observing System vicarious
calibration joint campaign at Lunar Lake Playa, Nevada
(USA)”.Metrologia,vol.35, pp.631-638, 1998.
[10] H. Toonoka, F.D Palluconi, S.J. Hook and T. Matsunaga,
“Vicarious calibration of ASTER thermal infrared bands”. IEEE
Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 432, pp.
1113–1126, 2005.
[11] J.A. Sobrino, D. Skoković and J.C. Jiménez-Muñoz. “Spatial
analysis of the homogeneity of the land surface temperature in
three Spanish test sites.” International Journal of Remote Sensing,
vol. 36, pp. 4793-4807, 2015.
[12] J.A. Sobrino and D. Skoković, “Permanent stations for
calibration/validation of thermal sensors over Spain”, Data, 1(2),
10, 2016.
[13] A. Beck, G. P. Anderson, P. K. Acharya, J. H. Chetwynd, L.
S. Bernstein, E. P. Shettle, M. W. Matthew, and S. M. Adler-
Golden, MODTRAN4 User’s Manual. Hanscom AFB, MA, USA:
Air Force Res. Lab., 1999.
[14] J. C. Jiménez-Muñoz, J. A. Sobrino, C. Mattar and B. Franch,
“Atmospheric correction of optical imagery from MODIS and
Reanalysis atmospheric products”, Remote Sensing of
Environment, vol.114, pp. 2195–2210, 2010.