Physics

Geology

Mathematics

Temperature measurement

Optics

Engineering

Emissivity

Reliability engineering

Geometry

Quality (philosophy)

Quantum mechanics

Radiometry

Product (mathematics)

Evaluation methods

Quality assessment

Environmental science

Remote sensing

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

The ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 29, 2018, and currently provides the highest spatial resolution thermal infrared (TIR) data (38 m <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times \,\, 69$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m) available from space. In this study, we validated the ECOSTRESS level-2 Land Surface Temperature (LST) and emissivity product at fourteen global sites to Stage-1 status. Two primary methods are recommended for the validation of LST data: Temperature-based (T-based) and Radiance-based (R-based) methods. The T-based method requires calibrated measurements of the ground leaving radiance concurrent with the satellite overpass. In contrast, the R-based method uses a radiative closure simulation with external atmospheric profiles and an <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$a$ </tex-math></inline-formula> <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">priori</i> knowledge of surface emissivity. Using these standard methods, we validated 1139 ECOSTRESS clear-sky observations between August 1, 2018, and March 31, 2020. For LST, the results show good agreement with ground-based measurements with an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.07 K, mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.40 K, and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$r^{2}&gt;0.988$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at all sites. However, a cold bias of ~0.75 K was identified for temperatures below 295 K linked to calibration issues that will be addressed in future reprocessing of the data. Retrieved emissivity comparisons with laboratory spectra had an RMSE of 0.023 (2.3%) for all bands on average. With the decommissioning of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on Terra in 2023, the multispectral and high-spatial-resolution characteristics of ECOSTRESS data serve as a pathfinder to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) designated observable with an expected launch in 2026.

Validation and Quality Assessment of the ECOSTRESS Level-2 Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity Product