4672 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 54, NO.
8, AUGUST 2016
A Physics-Based Method to Retrieve Land Surface
Temperature From MODIS Daytime
Midinfrared Data
Bo-Hui Tang, Member, IEEE, and Jie Wang
Abstract—The midinfrared (MIR) spectral region (3–5 μm),
which penetrates most haze layers in the atmosphere and is
less sensitive to variations in atmospheric water vapor, seems to
be appropriate for retrieving land surface temperature (LST).
However, there are currently few studies of LST retrieval with
MIR data because it is difficult to eliminate solar irradiance
from the total energy measured in the MIR during the daytime.
This paper proposes a physics-based method to retrieve LST
from MODIS daytime MIR data. The bidirectional reflectivity
describing the reflected solar direct irradiance is determined using
the method by Tang and Li. The directional emissivity, repre-
senting the surface emitted radiance, is determined by a kernel-
driven bidirectional reflectance distribution function model,
i.e., RossThick-LiSparse-R. Intercomparisons using the MODIS-
derived LST product MYD11_L2, for the Baotou experimental
site in Urad Qianqi, Inner Mongolia, China, have a maximum
root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 1.69 K and a minimum RMSE
of 1.31 K, for four scenes of MODIS images. Furthermore, in situ
LSTs measured at the Hailar field site in northeastern Inner
Mongolia, China, were also used to validate the proposed method.
Comparisons of the LSTs retrieved from MODIS daytime MIR
data and those calculated using in situ measurements have a
bias and RMSE of −0.17 K and 1.42 K, respectively, which
indicates that the proposed method can accurately retrieve LST
from MODIS daytime MIR data.
Index Terms—Daytime, land surface temperature (LST), mid-
infrared (MIR), MODIS.
I. I NTRODUCTION
L AND surface temperature (LST) is a key variable control-
ling fundamental biospheric and geospheric interactions
between the Earth’s surface and its atmosphere [1]. It is also one
Manuscript received January 28, 2016; revised March 9, 2016; accepted
March 20, 2016. Date of publication April 21, 2016; date of current version
June 1, 2016. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant 41571353 and Grant 41231170 and in
part by the “Strategic Priority Research Program” Climate Change: Carbon
Budget and Relevant Issues of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant
XDA05040204. (Corresponding author: Bo-Hui Tang.)
B.-H. Tang is with the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental
Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources
Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China, and also
with the Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Informa-
tion Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China (e-mail:
tangbh@igsnrr.ac.cn).
J. Wang is with the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental
Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources
Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China, and also with
the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TGRS.2016.2548500
0196-2892 © 2016 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only. Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution
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of the most important parameters in the physics of land-surface
processes at local to regional or global scales [2]. Knowledge
of LST provides important information for many studies, such
as evapotranspiration, climate change, surface energy budgets,
hydrological cycle, vegetation monitoring, urban climate, and
environment change [3]–[9]. Consequently, the ability to accu-
rately determine LST over large spatial and temporal scales is
essential to many applications [10].
Estimation of LST from satellite observations in the thermal
infrared (TIR, i.e., 8–14-μm window) has been ongoing for
several decades, and LST retrieval accuracy has been sig-
nificantly improved. Currently, many algorithms have been
proposed and developed to estimate LST from polar-orbit satel-
lite data [11]–[17] and geostationary satellite data [18]–[20].
Li et al. [21] comprehensively reviewed the current algorithms
and grouped them into three categories, i.e., single-channel
methods, multichannel methods, and multiangle methods, pro-
viding that the land surface emissivities (LSEs) are known
a priori. They noted that the retrieval of LST from space is
mathematically underdetermined and unsolvable. Although the
solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) sets becomes
deterministic via assumptions and constraints on the LSEs,
LST retrieval remains unstable due to the high correlations of
the measurements in the TIR region. The introduction of the
midinfrared (MIR) channels into LST retrieval can significantly
reduce the correlation of the RTE sets and greatly improve the
accuracy of the estimated LST [22].
The MIR spectral region (3–5 μm) has many advantages
with respect to the TIR spectral region. In contrast to TIR,
MIR can better penetrate most of the haze layers (except
dust) in the atmosphere [23] and is less sensitive to variations
in water vapor in the atmosphere [24]. Mushkin et al. [25]
extended surface temperature and emissivity retrieval to the
MIR using the multispectral thermal imager and found that LST
retrieved from MIR is only half as sensitive to errors in LSE as
those retrieved from TIR. Consequently, it seems to be more
appropriate to retrieve LST from MIR rather than TIR data.
However, measurements in the MIR region at satellite altitudes
during the daytime consist of a combination of both reflected
radiance due to solar irradiance and emitted radiance from both
the surface and the atmosphere. The reflected solar irradiance
is on the same order of magnitude as the radiance emitted by
the surface and the atmosphere, which makes it difficult to
eliminate the solar effect on LST retrieval in the MIR. This is
because the separation of solar irradiation from the total energy
measured in the MIR requires not only accurate atmospheric
TANG AND WANG: PHYSICS-BASED METHOD TO RETRIEVE LST FROM MODIS DAYTIME MIDINFRARED DATA
Fig. 1. Locations of the study areas.
information but also knowledge of the bidirectional reflectivity
of the surface. The uncertainties in such information may lead
to larger errors in the LST retrieved from MIR data. Therefore,
there are currently few studies of LST retrieval using MIR data.
Qian et al. [26] recently proposed retrieving LST solely from
the nighttime MIR data observed by an airborne hyperspectral
scanner (AHS). Zhao et al. [27] developed a split-window
method to retrieve daytime LST from two MIR channels of the
AHS. However, the LSEs were determined using a supervised
classification method. The uncertainty of this classification may
introduce large errors into the LST retrieval.
The objective of this paper is to develop a physics-based
method to retrieve LST from the MODIS daytime MIR data.
Section II introduces the study areas and data sets, includ-
ing the satellite data and in situ measurements. Section III
presents the radiative transfer theory in the MIR region and de-
scribes the methodologies associated with the determinations of
bidirectional reflectivity and directional emissivity. Section IV
gives the results of LST retrieved from MODIS daytime MIR
data. Preliminary validations using the MODIS LST product
MYD11_L2 and in situ measurements are also presented in this
section. Finally, the conclusions are given in Section V.
II. S TUDY A REAS AND DATA S ETS
A. Study Areas
Two field experimental sites were chosen as study areas.
Fig. 1 shows the locations of the sites (red rectangles). The first
study area, i.e., the Baotou experimental site, is located in Urad
Qianqi, Inner Mongolia, in northern China, between latitudes
40◦ 45’ N and 40◦ 54’ N and longitudes 109◦15’ E and 109◦40’ E.
The area has a semiarid temperate continental climate with a
mean annual temperature of 6 ◦ C and a mean annual rainfall
of approximately 288 mm. Most of the soil in this area is
sandy loam and silt loam. The site was chosen because there
is a series of cloud-free MODIS data available over this region
and the land cover of the area is diverse, including cropland,
grassland, open shrubland, and barren or sparsely vegetated
areas. In addition, it has an average ground elevation of 1290 m
above sea level, and the atmosphere is quite clean.
The second study area, i.e., the Hailar field site, is located
in Northeastern Inner Mongolia, China (49◦ 21’ N, 120◦ 07’ E).
The central area of the study site is approximately 0.4 km2 . The
4673
area has a cold temperate semihumid and semiarid continental
monsoon climate with a mean annual temperature of −2 ◦ C and
a mean annual rainfall of approximately 350 mm. This site was
chosen because it is homogeneous and fully covered by grass.
This site is very suitable for the validation of LST retrieved
from satellite data.
B. MODIS Satellite Data
MODIS is a passive imaging sensor aboard the NASA EOS
Terra satellite launched in 1999 and the Aqua satellite launched
in 2002. The instrument consists of 36 spectral channels
covering the visible and infrared wavelengths, from approx-
imately 0.4 to 14.0 μm [28]. MODIS is intended to satisfy
a diverse set of atmospheric, oceanographic, and terrestrial
science observational requirements. The data used in this work
were the MYD021KM, MYD03, MYD35_L2, MYD07_L2,
and MYD11_L2 product files provided by the NASA GSFC
Level 1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System
(LAADS) (http://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/data/search.html).
The MYD021KM products, which are Earth View data with
1-km resolution at nadir calibrated by the MODIS Characteriza-
tion and Support Team, include top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA)
radiances and reflectances. The MYD03 products provide geo-
detic latitude, longitude, solar zenith and azimuth angles, and
satellite zenith and azimuth angles, for each 1-km sample.
MYD35_L2 is a cloud mask product that assigns a clear-
sky confidence level (i.e., clear, probably clear, uncertain, and
cloudy) to each IFOV. MYD07_L2 is an atmospheric profile
product, providing temperature and moisture profiles with a
spatial resolution of 5 km at nadir for 20 vertical atmospheric
pressure levels. MYD11_L2 is a land surface temperature/
emissivity (LST/E) product, providing per-pixel LST and LSE
values at 1-km resolution, and is used to validate the LST
estimated from the MIR data.
C. In Situ Measurements
The in situ experimental campaigns were conducted at the
Hailar field site. To ensure that the ground measurements of
LST were representative at the satellite pixel scale, four SI-111
infrared radiometers, which were manufactured by Apogee
Instruments, Inc., USA, were uniformly installed at an interval
of 120 m at the field site. The SI-111 sensors measured the TIR
radiance in the 8.0–14.0-μm domain and obtained brightness
temperatures with an absolute accuracy of ±0.2 K. The sensors,
with a FOV of 44◦ , were mounted at a height of 2.0 m to observe
an area of approximately 2.0 m2 . An additional SI-111 sensor
was directed toward the sky at 53◦ with regard to the zenith and
measured the downwelling atmospheric radiance, which was
used to correct for the reflected atmospheric component [29].
Fig. 2 gives one photograph of the SI-111 infrared radiometers
installed at the field site to illustrate the field measurement. All
measurements were recorded every 10 s and were stored as 30-s
averages. Furthermore, to reduce the influence of the external
environment on the measured infrared radiance, a wireless net
observation system was adopted to transfer the radiances to a
computer terminal.
4674
Fig. 2. Photograph of SI-111 infrared radiometers installed at the field site.
D. DEM Data
To calculate the real atmospheric path length between the
targets and the sensor, digital elevation model (DEM) data with
90-m resolution provided by the NASA Shuttle Radar Topo-
graphic Mission (SRTM) were used. The SRTM provides DEMs
for over 80% of the Earth, and the vertical error of the DEM is
reported to be less than 16 m. These data are currently distrib-
uted free of charge by the USGS and are available for download
from the National Map Seamless Data Distribution System or
the ftp site (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SRTM_v41/SRTM_Data
_GeoTIFF). The DEM data were resampled at 1-km resolution
to match the MYD021KM data.
III. M ETHODOLOGY
A. Radiative Transfer Theory for the MIR
On the basis of radiative transfer theory for a cloud-free at-
mosphere in thermodynamic equilibrium, the daytime channel
radiance Bi (Ti ), which was observed at the TOA by a MIR
channel (3–5-μm window) of the sensor onboard a satellite, is
approximately [30]
Bi (Ti ) = Bi (Tg_i )τi + Ratm_i ↑ +Ratm_i
s
↑ (1)
where Ti and Tg_i represent channel brightness temperatures
observed in channel i at TOA and at ground level, respectively.
Bi is the Planck function, τi is the total atmospheric transmit-
↑
tance along the target to the sensor path in channel i, Ratm_i is
the thermal-path atmospheric upwelling radiance in channel i,
s
and Ratm_i ↑ is the thermal-path upward radiance resulting
from the scattering of solar radiation. Bi (Tg_i ) is the channel
radiance in channel i at ground level, which can be written as
 
Bi (Tg_i ) = εi Bi (Ts )+(1−εi) Ratm_i ↓ + Ratm_i
s
↓ +ρbi Ris
(2)
where εi (i.e., LSE; hereafter, εi is used interchangeably with
LSE) is the directional channel emissivity in channel i; Bi (Ts ) is
the radiance emitted by a blackbody with land surface temper-
ature Ts (i.e., LST; hereafter, LST is used interchangeably with
Ts ); Ratm_i ↓ is the channel downward atmospheric radiance,
which is defined as 1/π times the total downward atmospheric
s
irradiance; Ratm_i ↓ is the channel downward solar diffusion
radiation over the hemisphere divided by π; ρbi is the surface
bidirectional reflectivity in channel i, which is usually referred
to as the surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function
(BRDF); and Ris is the solar irradiance at the ground level in
channel i. All terms in (1) and (2) are angular dependent. For
simplicity, the angular expressions are omitted in this equation.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 54, NO. 8, AUGUST 2016
Inverting (2) and combing (1) gives
 Bi (Ti )−Ratm_i ↑−Rs 
atm_i ↑
Ts = Bi−1 τi εi
(1−εi )(Ratm_i ↓+Rsatm_i ↓)+ρbi Rsi (3)
− εi
where B −1 is the inverse of the Planck function. The atmo-
↑
spheric parameters (τi, Ratm_i ↓, Ratm_i
s
↓, Ratm_i s
, Ratm_i ↑, Ris)
can be calculated from atmospheric radiative transfer models,
such as Moderate Resolution Atmospheric Transmittance
and Radiance Code (MODTRAN, http://www.modtran5.com)
[31] or Operational Release for Automatized Atmospheric
Absorption Atlas (4A/OP, http://4aop.noveltis.com/) [32], if
the atmospheric profile is available from either conventional
radiosoundings or satellite soundings. To estimate LST from
(3), both the surface bidirectional reflectivity ρbi and the
directional emissivity εi must be known.
B. Determination of the Bidirectional Reflectivity
Based on the difference in the solar reflection in two adjacent
MODIS MIR channels 22 (centered at 3.97 μm) and 23 (cen-
tered at 4.06 μm), Tang and Li [33] assumed that the surface
bidirectional reflectivities were equal in channels 22 and 23 and
that the ground brightness temperatures in those two adjacent
channels were the same if the contribution of the direct solar
radiation was not considered. They developed a new method to
retrieve the bidirectional reflectivity in the MIR channel from
MODIS channels 22 and 23 using
 0 
B22 (Tg_22 ) − B22 Tg_22
ρb_22 = s (4)
R22
where the subscript 22 represents MODIS channel 22. ρb_22 is
the bidirectional reflectivity of MODIS channel 22. Tg_22 is the
daytime ground-based brightness temperature for channel 22,
s
and R22 is the solar irradiance at ground level in MODIS
0
channel 22. Tg_22 is the MIR ground brightness temperature
without the contribution of the solar direct beam and can be esti-
mated from the ground brightness temperatures Tg_22 and Tg_23
in channels 22 and 23 using
0
Tg_22 = Tg_22 +a1 +a2 (Tg_22 −Tg_23 )+a3 (Tg_22 −Tg_23 )2 (5)
where Tg_23 is the daytime ground-based brightness tempera-
ture of MODIS channel 23. The coefficients a1 −a3 are only
dependent on the solar zenith angle (SZA). More details con-
cerning the development of this method can be found in [33].
C. Determination of the Directional Emissivity
Based on Kirchhoff’s law, for an opaque medium in thermal
equilibrium, the directional emissivity ε(θv , ϕv ) is related to the
hemispherical directional reflectance ρh (θv , ϕv ) by
ε(θv , ϕv ) = 1 − ρh (θv , ϕv ) (6)
with
2π2
π
ρh (θv , ϕv ) = ρb (θv , ϕv , θs , ϕs ) cos θs sin θs dθs dϕs (7)
0 0
where θv is the viewing zenith angle (VZA), ϕv is the viewing
azimuth angle, θs is the incident SZA, and ϕs is the solar
azimuth angle.
TANG AND WANG: PHYSICS-BASED METHOD TO RETRIEVE LST FROM MODIS DAYTIME MIDINFRARED DATA 4675

Assuming that the shapes of the BRDF in the MIR spectral

region are the same as those in the visible and near-infrared
regions [34], a kernel-driven BRDF model, i.e., RossThick-
LiSparse-R, can be used to describe the non-Lambertian reflec-
tive behavior of land surface [35]–[37] as

ρb (θv , θs , ϕ) = kiso + kvol fvol (θv , θs , ϕ) + kgeo fgeo (θv , θs , ϕ)

(8)
where ϕ is the relative azimuth angle between the observation
and incidence directions. kiso is the isotropic scattering term,
kvol is the coefficient of Roujean’s volumetric kernel fvol , and
kgeo is the coefficient of the LiSparse-R geometric kernel fgeo .
It should be noted that the bidirectional reflectivity in the
azimuthal direction is assumed in this model to be dependent
on the value of ϕ regardless of the respective value of ϕv
and ϕs , i.e., ρb (θv , ϕv , θs , ϕs ) = ρb (θv , θs , ϕ). Consequently,
according to (6)–(8), the directional emissivity in the MIR
channel can then be written as

ε(θv ) = 1 − πkiso − kvol Ifvol (θv ) − kgeo Ifgeo (θv ) (9)

with
π
2π2
Ifx (θv ) = fx (θv , θs , ϕ) cos(θs ) sin(θs )dθs dϕ (10)
0 0

where the subscript x represents the subscripts vol or geo. As Fig. 3. Flowchart to retrieve LST from MODIS daytime MIR data in channels
22 and 23.
the integrals of Ifvol (θv ) and Ifgeo (θv ) over the incident angle θs
and the relative azimuth angle ϕ are complicated mathematical
expressions and cannot be analytically derived, Tang et al. [38]
proposed parameterization expressions to approximately calcu-
late the integrals of Roujean’s volumetric kernel fvol and the
reciprocal LiSparse geometric kernel fgeo as
 
θv
Ifvol (θv ) = −0.0299+0.0128 exp (11)
21.4382
   
θv −90.9545 2
Ifgeo (θv ) = −2.0112−0.3410 exp −2 . (12)
68.8171

The parameters kiso , kvol , and kgeo in (8) can be fitted using
a least square method, if there are more than three bidirectional
reflectances ρb available with different angular configurations.
The directional emissivity ε(θv ) in the MIR channel can then
be calculated using (9)–(12). Subsequently, the LST can be
estimated according to (3).
IV. R ESULTS AND VALIDATIONS
A. Application to Actual MODIS Daytime MIR Data
1) Data Preprocessing: Based on the clear-sky confidence
level (i.e., clear, probably clear, uncertain, and cloudy) assigned
to each IFOV in the MODIS cloud mask product MOD35_L2,
the cloudy pixels were first screened out of the MODIS
level_1B data.
To obtain the atmospheric quantities (τi , Ratm_i ↓, Ratm_i
s
↓,
↑
Ratm_i , Ratm_i ↑, Ri ) involved in (3), the latest radiative
s s
transfer model, i.e., MODTRAN 5, was used with the MODIS
MYD07_L2 atmospheric profile product and the DEM data.
Fig. 4. Map of the LST estimated from MODIS MIR data for the Baotou study
area observed at 06:05 UTC on May 27, 2014.
Because of the difference in the spatial resolutions between
the MYD021KM data (1 km) and MYD07_L2 data (5 km),
the atmospheric quantities need to be interpolated to match the
MYD021KM data. A simple bilinear interpolation method pro-
posed by Tang and Li [33] was adopted to perform the angular,
altitudinal, and spatial interpolations in this study.
2) Estimation of LST: The objective of this study is to esti-
mate the LST from daytime MIR data. Fig. 3 gives a flowchart
of the proposed method to retrieve LST from the actual MODIS
MIR data in channels 22 and 23.
Fig. 4 shows an example of the estimation of LST for
the Baotou study area on May 27 (DOY 147), 2014, at
06:05 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The model inputs
4676
Fig. 5. (a) Retrieved bidirectional reflectivity versus view zenith angle. (b) Sun and satellite zenith and azimuth angles in polar representation for grassland, barren
land, and open shrubland, for the four days.
are the TOA MIR radiances of channels 22 and 23 from
MYD021KM; geodetic latitude, longitude, solar zenith and az-
imuth angles, satellite zenith and azimuth angles from MYD03,
cloud mask from MYD35_L2; temperature and moisture pro-
files from MYD07_L2 and the DEM data for the study area.
Symbols A and B, which are located in the red and yellow
colored areas in Fig. 4, represent the LSTs of barren or sparse
grassland, and open shrubland, respectively. As shown in Fig. 4,
the estimated LSTs on the southern side are lower than those on
the northern side. This is because the elevation of the southern
side is, on average, approximately 400 m higher than that of the
northern side.
B. Validation Using the MODIS LST Product MYD11_L2
To validate the proposed LST retrieval method, an inter-
comparison method was used with the MODIS LST V5 prod-
uct MYD11_L2 retrieved using a generalized split-window
algorithm [13] from the MODIS TIR data. Because both of
the estimated LSTs are derived from MODIS level-1B data,
geographic coordinate matching, temporal matching, and VZA
matching for the intercomparison data do not need to be taken
into account.
As parameters kiso , kvol , and kgeo in (8) need at least three
bidirectional reflectances ρb with different angular configu-
rations on consecutive cloud-free days to be obtained, the
MODIS data observed on Julian days 145, 147, 149, and 151, in
2014, for the Baotou field experimental site were selected. The
bidirectional reflectivities ρb were retrieved from the MODIS
MIR data using MODTRAN and the atmospheric profiles for
this area in MYD07_L2, for images of the four days. Then, the
corresponding directional emissivities ε in the MIR channels
were calculated, and the LSTs were estimated according to (3).
Fig. 5(a) shows, as an example, the bidirectional reflectivities
retrieved for grassland, open shrubland, and barren land versus
the VZA. Fig. 5(b) illustrates the observation geometry of the
sun and satellite zenith and azimuth angles in polar represen-
tation for the four days. It should be noted that many more
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 54, NO. 8, AUGUST 2016
observations with different angular configurations will generate
better fitting results in the kernel-driven model. Consequently,
combining Terra and Aqua MIR data on some consecutive
cloud-free days will robust the inversion. Since most of the
Terra data observed on Julian days 145–151, in 2014, for the
Baotou field experimental site were contaminated by clouds or
partial clouds, only Aqua data sets were used in this work.
Fig. 6 shows a comparison of the LSTs retrieved with the
proposed method from the MODIS daytime MIR data and
the values extracted from the MYD11_L2 LST product for the
Baotou experimental site for the four days. The LSTs derived
from the MODIS MIR cloud-free data on the four days varied
from 287 to 327 K. This is because the satellite overpass times
for each day are different, and the satellite observation angles
of the same pixel for different days are also different. For Julian
day 145, the overpass time was 06:15 UTC. It was 06:05 UTC
for Julian day 147, 05:50 UTC for day 149, and 05:40 UTC for
day 151. Compared to the MYD11_L2 LSTs, the bias and root-
mean-square error (RMSE) were −0.68 and 1.69 K for Julian
day 145, −0.41 and 1.34 K for Julian day 147, 0.42 and 1.31 K
for Julian day 149, and 0.81 and 1.55 K for Julian day 151, re-
spectively. The results show that the maximum RMSE is 1.69 K
and the minimum RMSE is 1.31 K, for the comparisons.
The RMSEs could be different for the four days because
the MYD11_L2 LSTs were derived with a generalized split-
window algorithm [13], whereas the LSEs were determined
via the classification-based method [39], without taking into
account the directional effect of the LSE, which may lead to
large errors in the LST retrieval for different observation angles.
Fig. 7 shows the corresponding histograms of the differences
between the LST estimated with the MODIS MIR data and those
from the MYD11_L2 product. Although the maximum LST er-
ror in the comparison is approximately −4.5 K, we can see that
60.5% of the pixels have LST absolute differences below 1.5 K
for Julian day 151 [see Fig. 7(d)]. This proportion is 65.6% for
Julian day 145 and increases to 73.9% for day 147 and 77.4%
for day 149. This finding implies that the proposed method can
be used to estimate the LST from MODIS daytime MIR data.
TANG AND WANG: PHYSICS-BASED METHOD TO RETRIEVE LST FROM MODIS DAYTIME MIDINFRARED DATA 4677

Fig. 6. Comparison of the LSTs estimated from MODIS daytime MIR data to those extracted from the MYD11_L2 LST product for the Baotou study area, on
four continuous days 145, 147, 149, and 151, in 2014.

Fig. 7. Difference histograms between the LSTs estimated from MODIS daytime MIR data and those extracted from the MYD11_L2 LST product for the Baotou
study area, on four continuous days 145, 147, 149, and 151, in 2014.
4678 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, VOL. 54, NO. 8, AUGUST 2016
Fig. 8. Comparison of the LSTs estimated from MODIS daytime MIR data
and those calculated using in situ measurements, at the time of the MODIS
overpasses, at the Hailar study site.
C. Validation Using In Situ Measurements
The in situ measurements observed by the infrared radiome-
ter are ground-based radiances coupled to the LST, LSE, and
downwelling atmospheric radiance; therefore, LST can be re-
trieved from
Urad Qianqi, Inner Mongolia, China, on Julian days 145, 147,
are −0.17 K and 1.42 K, respectively, which indicate that the
proposed method can accurately retrieve LST from MODIS
daytime MIR data.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper has developed a physics-based method to retrieve
LST from the MODIS daytime MIR data in channels 22 (cen-
tered at 3.97 μm) and 23 (centered at 4.06 μm). On the basis
of radiative transfer theory in the MIR region, a bidirectional
reflectivity retrieval method proposed by Tang and Li [33] was
used to separate the reflected solar direct irradiance and the ra-
diances emitted by the surface and atmosphere. A kernel-driven
BRDF model, i.e., RossThick-LiSparse-R, was proposed to de-
scribe the non-Lambertian reflective behavior of the land surface
and to accordingly determine the directional emissivity if there
were more than three bidirectional reflectances available with
different angular configurations on several consecutive days.
The MODIS LST/E product MYD11_L2, with LST retrieved
using a generalized split-window algorithm at 1-km spatial
resolution, was used to validate the proposed method. Compar-
isons of the LSTs estimated with the proposed method from the
MODIS daytime MIR data and the values extracted from the
MYD11_L2 LST product for the Baotou experimental site in
1 
↓ 149, and 151, in 2014, indicated a maximum RMSE of 1.69 K
LST = Bλ−1 Lground,λ − (1 − ελ )Ratm,λ (13)
ελ
where B −1 is the inversion of the Planck function; Lground,λ
is the ground-based radiance emitted from the surface; ελ is
↓
the LSE; and Ratm,λ is the downwelling radiance from the sky,
which is obtained from measurements by the additional SI-111
infrared radiometer directed toward the sky at the study site.
Determining parameters kiso , kvol , and kgeo in (8) from
the MODIS MIR data requires at least three approximately
cloud-free images of continuous days, as mentioned earlier.
Therefore, five days of cloud-free MODIS images in November
2013, five days in March 2014, four days in April 2014, and
six days in August 2014 were chosen. The land cover of the
Hailar field site was dry grass from October 22 to November 5,
2013. From November 6, 2013, to March 25, 2014, the site was
covered by snow. From April to May, the snow melted, and the
site was again covered by dry grass. From June to September,
the land cover at the site was green grass. Consequently, the
value of ελ was assigned a constant value of 0.940 for dry
grass, 0.983 for green grass, and 0.988 for snow cover, as
calculated by combining the spectral response function of the
SI-111 with the dry grass spectra, green grass spectra, and snow
spectra provided by the MODIS University of California at
Santa Barbara (UCSB) emissivity library of the MODIS LST
Group (http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/modis/EMIS/html/em.html).
Fig. 8 compares the LSTs retrieved from MODIS MIR
data using the proposed method and those calculated using
(13) from the in situ measurements, for all days with cloud-
free conditions, at the time of the MODIS overpasses. Three-
minute means of the ground-based observations were used.
Fig. 8 shows that the bias and RMSE of the LSTs between the
two measurements (ground-based and satellite-based methods)
and a minimum RMSE of 1.31 K.
To further demonstrate the proposed method, in situ LSTs
measured at the Hailar field site in northeastern Inner Mongolia,
China, were also used to validate the proposed method. The
results showed that the bias and RMSE between the LSTs
retrieved from MODIS daytime MIR data and those calculated
using in situ measurements, at the time of the MODIS over-
passes, were −0.17 K and 1.42 K, respectively, which implies
that the proposed method could be used to accurately retrieve
LST from MODIS daytime MIR data.
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Bo-Hui Tang (M’11) received the B.S. degree from
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 1999, the M.S.
degree from the China Remote Sensing Satellite
Ground Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing, China, in 2004, and the Ph.D. degree from
the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural
Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing, in 2007, all in cartography and geographical
information system.
He is currently an Associate Research Fellow with
the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural
Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also with the Jiangsu
Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource
Development and Application, Nanjing, China. His research mainly includes
the retrieval and validation of surface net radiation and surface temperature.
Jie Wang received the B.S. degree in spatial infor-
mation and digital technology from Wuhan Univer-
sity, Wuhan, China, in 2013. He is currently working
toward the M.S. degree in cartography and geograph-
ical information system with the Institute of Geo-
graphic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
He is currently with the University of Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing. The current topic of
his study is retrieving the land surface temperature
and developing new vegetation index from mid-
infrared data.