Evaluation of the spatial representativity of air temperature measured at meteorological stations in Andalusia

The present paper aims to present a new approach allowing evaluation of the spatial representativity of the air temperature measured at meteorological stations. Taking into account NOAA-AVHRR derived surface temperatures and environmental data of the station surroundings, an evaluation of the meteor ological network is made. A series of surface temperature maps are prepared from NOAA-AVHRR images. The spatial variability of the thermal field aroun d each station is analysed together with the environmental conditions and a s a function of the season. The zone of spatial representativity for each m eteorological station is then defined. The paper presents preliminary resul ts obtained for some meteorological stations in Andalusia in southern Spain .