COMPARISON OF LAND-SURFACE TEMPERATURES DERIVED FROM SATELLITE-OBSERVATIONS WITH GROUND TRUTH DURING FIFE

Surface temperatures of the FIFE (First ISLSCP Field Experiment) exper imental area derived from thermal infrared radiances recorded from dif ferent satellite platforms at different scales were compared with refe rence observations by means of infrared thermometers at ground station s distributed over the area. FIFE was conducted during late spring, su mmer and fall over an area of 15 km by 15 km in a hilly tall-grass pra irie region in northeastern Kansas. The data available for this purpos e were produced by AVHRR and TOVS instruments aboard NOAA-9 and NOAA-1 0, the TM instrument aboard Landsat-5, and VISSR instrument aboard GOE S-7. The scales covered by these instruments span a wide range, namely between hundreds of metres (Landsat TM) and hundreds of kilometres (T OVS). The data are analysed both with and without the application of a n atmospheric correction.