CHARACTERIZING SURFACE AND AIR TEMPERATURE IN THE BALTIC SEA COASTAL AREA USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES AND GIS

Abstract

Estimation of surface temperature using multispectral imagery retrieved from satellite sensors constitutes several problems in terms of accuracy, accessibility, quality and evaluation. In order to obtain accurate results, currently utilized methods rely on removing atmospheric fluctuations in separate spectral windows, applying atmospheric corrections or utilizing additional information related to atmosphere or surface characteristics like atmospheric water vapour content, surface effective emissivity correction or transmittance correction. Obtaining accurate results of estimation is particularly critical for regions with fairly non-uniform distribution of surface effective emissivity and surface characteristics such as coastal zone areas. The paper presents the relationship between retrieved land surface temperature, air temperature, sea surface temperature and vegetation indices (VI) calculated based on remote observations in the coastal zone area. An indirect comparison method between remotely estimated surface temperature and air temperature using LST/VI feature space characteristics in an operational Geographic Information System is also presented.