A review of Ts/VI remote sensing based methods for the retrieval of land surface energy fluxes and soil surface moisture

Imagery from remote sensing systems, often combined with ancillary ground information, is able to provide repetitive, synoptic views of key parameters characterizing land surface interactions, including surface energy fluxes and surface soil moisture. Differing methodologies using a wide range of remote sensing data have been developed for this purpose. Approaches vary from purely empirical to more complex ones, including residual methods and those that have their basis in the biophysical properties characterizing a two-dimensional Ts/VI (surface temperature/ vegetation index) scatterplot domain derived from remote sensing observations. The present article aims to offer a comprehensive and systematic review of this latter group of methods, which differ in terms of the complexity and assumptions they entail as well as their requirement for field-based and other ancillary data. Prior to the review, the biophysical meanings and properties encapsulated in the Ts/VI feature space is elucidated, since these represent the building block upon which all the Ts/VI methods described herein are based. The overview of the Ts/VI methods is also very timely, as one such method is being scheduled in the operational retrieval of surface soil moisture content by the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), in a series of satellite platforms due to be launched in the next 12 years starting from 2016.

[1]  Thomas J. Schmugge,et al.  An interpretation of methodologies for indirect measurement of soil water content , 1995 .

[2]  S. Idso,et al.  Canopy temperature as a crop water stress indicator , 1981 .

[3]  Toby N. Carlson,et al.  The impact of land use — land cover changes due to urbanization on surface microclimate and hydrology: a satellite perspective , 2000 .

[4]  T. Carlson.  An Overview of the “Triangle Method” for Estimating Surface Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture from Satellite Imagery , 2007, Sensors (Basel, Switzerland).

[5]  S. Goward,et al.  Estimation of air temperature from remotely sensed surface observations , 1997 .

[6]  Jean-Christophe Calvet,et al.  From Near-Surface to Root-Zone Soil Moisture Using Year-Round Data , 2000 .

[7]  Raymond E. Arvidson,et al.  An Application of Remotely Derived Climatological Fields for Risk Assessment of Vector-Borne Diseases: A Spatial Study of Filariasis Prevalence in the Nile Delta, Egypt , 1999 .

[8]  Chih-Hung Tan,et al.  Use of spectral information for wetland evapotranspiration assessment , 2002 .

[9]  S. Running,et al.  Estimation of regional surface resistance to evapotranspiration from NDVI and thermal-IR AVHRR data , 1989 .

[10]  Eric F. Lambin,et al.  The surface temperature-vegetation index space for land cover and land-cover change analysis , 1996 .

[11]  M. S. Moran,et al.  Combining the Penman-Monteith equation with measurements of surface temperature and reflectance to estimate evaporation rates of semiarid grassland , 1996 .

[12]  Ramakrishna R. Nemani,et al.  Development of an evapotranspiration index from Aqua/MODIS for monitoring surface moisture status , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[13]  Piers J. Sellers,et al.  The first International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment - FIFE , 1992 .

[14]  Thomas J. Schmugge,et al.  Remote estimation of soil moisture availability and fractional vegetation cover for agricultural fields , 1990 .

[15]  Rasmus Fensholt,et al.  Combining the triangle method with thermal inertia to estimate regional evapotranspiration — Applied to MSG-SEVIRI data in the Senegal River basin , 2008 .

[16]  Samuel N. Goward,et al.  Observed relation between thermal emission and reflected spectral radiance of a complex vegetated landscape , 1985 .

[17]  R. Gillies,et al.  Visual Exploration of Satellite Images , 2000 .

[18]  Toby N. Carlson,et al.  Decoupling of surface and near‐surface soil water content: A remote sensing perspective , 1997 .

[19]  S. Running,et al.  Developing Satellite-derived Estimates of Surface Moisture Status , 1993 .

[20]  R. Colwell.  Remote sensing of the environment , 1980, Nature.

[21]  R. J. Gurney,et al.  Discrimination of Soil Physical Parameters, Thermal Inertia, and Soil Moisture from Diurnal Surface Temperature Fluctuations , 1985 .

[22]  J. Norman,et al.  Source approach for estimating soil and vegetation energy fluxes in observations of directional radiometric surface temperature , 1995 .

[23]  W. G. M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Regionalization of surface flux desities and moisture indicators in composite terrain , 1995 .

[24]  A. Holtslag,et al.  A remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL)-1. Formulation , 1998 .

[25]  N. U. Ahmed,et al.  Relations between evaporation coefficients and vegetation indices studied by model simulations , 1994 .

[26]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Effects of remote sensing pixel resolution on modeled energy flux variability of croplands in Iowa , 2004 .

[27]  L. Jiang,et al.  An intercomparison of regional latent heat flux estimation using remote sensing data , 2003 .

[28]  Nathaniel A. Brunsell,et al.  Scale issues in land-atmosphere interactions: implications for remote sensing of the surface energy balance , 2003 .

[29]  Lawrence B. Flanagan,et al.  Seasonal and interannual variation in evapotranspiration, energy balance and surface conductance in a northern temperate grassland , 2002 .

[30]  A. Perrier,et al.  HAPEX—MOBLIHY: A Hydrologic Atmospheric Experiment for the Study of Water Budget and Evaporation Flux at the Climatic Scale , 1986 .

[31]  S. Islam,et al.  Estimation of surface evaporation map over Southern Great Plains using remote sensing data , 2001 .

[32]  Albert Olioso,et al.  Mapping surface fluxes using airborne visible, near infrared, thermal infrared remote sensing data and a spatialized surface energy balance model , 2002 .

[33]  Mariusz A. Sumlinski,et al.  An Application of the , 2014 .

[34]  Samuel N. Goward,et al.  Evaluating land surface moisture conditions from the remotely sensed temperature/vegetation index measurements: An exploration with the simplified simple biosphere model , 2002 .

[35]  T. Carlson,et al.  Satellite Estimation of the Surface Energy Balance, Moisture Availability and Thermal Inertia. , 1981 .

[36]  P. Dodds,et al.  A Review of Methods to Estimate Irrigated Reference Crop Evapotranspiration across Australia , 2005 .

[37]  Martha C. Anderson,et al.  A thermal-based remote sensing technique for routine mapping of land-surface carbon, water and energy fluxes from field to regional scales , 2008 .

[38]  T. Lyons,et al.  Land-atmosphere interaction in a semiarid region: the bunny fence experiment , 1993 .

[39]  T. Carlson,et al.  An assessment of satellite remotely-sensed land cover parameters in quantitatively describing the climatic effect of urbanization , 1998 .

[40]  T. J. Lyons,et al.  Estimation of Regional Evapotranspiration through Remote Sensing , 1999 .

[41]  Ramakrishna R. Nemani,et al.  An operational remote sensing algorithm of land surface evaporation , 2003 .

[42]  B. Séguin,et al.  Review on estimation of evapotranspiration from remote sensing data: From empirical to numerical modeling approaches , 2005 .

[43]  Toby N. Carlson,et al.  On estimating total daily evapotranspiration from remote surface temperature measurements , 1989 .

[44]  Rasmus Fensholt,et al.  Estimation of diurnal air temperature using MSG SEVIRI data in West Africa , 2007 .

[45]  Simona Consoli,et al.  Remote sensing to estimate ET-fluxes and the performance of an irrigation district in southern Italy , 2006 .

[46]  Albert Olioso,et al.  Application of a simple algorithm to estimate daily evapotranspiration from NOAA–AVHRR images for the Iberian Peninsula , 2007 .

[47]  William P. Kustas,et al.  Modelling surface energy fluxes over maize using a two-source patch model and radiometric soil and canopy temperature observations , 2008 .

[48]  Martha C. Anderson,et al.  Thermal Remote Sensing of Drought and Evapotranspiration , 2008 .

[49]  M. S. Moran,et al.  Estimating crop water deficit using the relation between surface-air temperature and spectral vegetation index , 1994 .

[50]  Z. Su.  The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) for estimation of turbulent heat fluxes , 2002 .

[51]  William P. Kustas,et al.  Effect of remote sensing spatial resolution on interpreting tower-based flux observations , 2006 .

[52]  Albert Olioso,et al.  Retrieval of evapotranspiration over the Alpilles/ReSeDA experimental site using airborne POLDER sensor and a thermal camera , 2005 .

[53]  J. C. Price.  Using spatial context in satellite data to infer regional scale evapotranspiration , 1990 .

[54]  Bikash Ranjan Parida,et al.  Analysing the effect of severity and duration of Agricultural drought on crop performance using Terra/MODIS Satellite data and Meteorological data , 2006 .

[55]  Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Linear relationships between surface reflectance and temperature and their application to map actual evaporation of groundwater , 1989 .

[56]  T. Carlson,et al.  Uncertainties in latent heat flux measurement and estimation: implications for using a simplified approach with remote sensing data , 2004 .

[57]  R. Scott,et al.  Partitioning overstory and understory evapotranspiration in a semiarid savanna woodland from the isotopic composition of water vapor , 2003 .

[58]  Zhanqing Li,et al.  Estimation of evaporative fraction from a combination of day and night land surface temperatures and NDVI: A new method to determine the Priestley-Taylor parameter , 2006 .

[59]  Steven A. Margulis,et al.  A Comparison of the Triangle Retrieval and Variational Data Assimilation Methods for Surface Turbulent Flux Estimation , 2005 .

[60]  Fabio Castelli,et al.  Mapping of Land-Atmosphere Heat Fluxes and Surface Parameters with Remote Sensing Data , 2003 .

[61]  S. Miller,et al.  Spaceborne soil moisture estimation at high resolution: a microwave-optical/IR synergistic approach , 2003 .

[62]  M. Ridd.  Exploring a V-I-S (vegetation-impervious surface-soil) model for urban ecosystem analysis through remote sensing: comparative anatomy for cities , 1995 .

[63]  Robert R. Gillies,et al.  A new look at the simplified method for remote sensing of daily evapotranspiration , 1995 .

[64]  I. Sandholt,et al.  A simple interpretation of the surface temperature/vegetation index space for assessment of surface moisture status , 2002 .

[65]  M. S. Moran,et al.  Estimating soil moisture at the watershed scale with satellite-based radar and land surface models , 2004 .

[66]  T. Carlson,et al.  Estimating near-surface soil moisture availability using a meteorologically driven soil-water profile model , 1994 .

[67]  T. Carlson,et al.  Thermal remote sensing of surface soil water content with partial vegetation cover for incorporation into climate models , 1995 .

[68]  T. Carlson,et al.  On the relation between NDVI, fractional vegetation cover, and leaf area index , 1997 .

[69]  R. Gillies.  A verification of the 'triangle' method for obtaining surface water content and energy fluxes from remote measurements of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and surface radiant temperature , 1997 .

[70]  P. E. O'connell,et al.  An introduction to the European Hydrological System — Systeme Hydrologique Europeen, “SHE”, 2: Structure of a physically-based, distributed modelling system , 1986 .

[71]  Matthew F. McCabe,et al.  Scale influences on the remote estimation of evapotranspiration using multiple satellite sensors , 2006 .

[72]  W. Kustas,et al.  A verification of the 'triangle' method for obtaining surface soil water content and energy fluxes from remote measurements of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and surface e , 1997 .

[73]  Chong-Yu Xu,et al.  Comparison of seven models for estimation of evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge using lysimeter measurement data in Germany , 2005 .

[74]  S. Goetz.  Multi-sensor analysis of NDVI, surface temperature and biophysical variables at a mixed grassland site , 1997 .

[75]  Samuel N. Goward,et al.  Simulated Relationships Between Spectral Reflectance, Thermal Emissions, and Evapotranspiration of a Soybean Canopy , 1986 .

[76]  Frank Veroustraete,et al.  Assessment of Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture Content Across Different Scales of Observation , 2008, Sensors.

[77]  J. Goldman,et al.  Future perspectives , 2010, Bone Marrow Transplantation.

[78]  Toby N. Carlson,et al.  Satellite Remote Sensing of Land Use Changes in and around San José, Costa Rica , 1999 .

[79]  Yann Kerr,et al.  IRSUTE: A Minisatellite Project for Land Surface Heat Flux Estimation from Field to Regional Scale , 1999 .

[80]  Z. Su,et al.  Application of remote sensing for hydrological modelling , 1990 .

[81]  Gautam Bisht,et al.  Comparison of evaporative fractions estimated from AVHRR and MODIS sensors over South Florida , 2004 .

[82]  Maosheng Zhao,et al.  Development of a global evapotranspiration algorithm based on MODIS and global meteorology data , 2007 .

[83]  Yong Xue,et al.  Air temperature retrieval from remote sensing data based on thermodynamics , 2005 .

[84]  Massimo Menenti,et al.  S-SEBI: A simple remote sensing algorithm to estimate the surface energy balance , 2000 .

[85]  Gautam Bisht,et al.  Estimation and comparison of evapotranspiration from MODIS and AVHRR sensors for clear sky days over the Southern Great Plains , 2006 .

[86]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  An Interdisciplinary Field Study of the Energy and Water Fluxes in the Atmosphere–Biosphere System over Semiarid Rangelands: Description and Some Preliminary Results , 1991 .

[87]  S. Planton,et al.  A Simple Parameterization of Land Surface Processes for Meteorological Models , 1989 .

[88]  T. Murray,et al.  Moving towards a more mechanistic approach in the determination of soil heat flux from remote measurements: I. A universal approach to calculate thermal inertia , 2007 .

[89]  Kaniska Mallick,et al.  Estimating volumetric surface moisture content for cropped soils using a soil wetness index based on surface temperature and NDVI , 2009 .

[90]  Z. Wan,et al.  Using MODIS Land Surface Temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index products for monitoring drought in the southern Great Plains, USA , 2004 .

[91]  T. Jacksona,et al.  Effects of remote sensing pixel resolution on modeled energy flux variability of croplands in Iowa , 2004 .

[92]  Bhaskar J. Choudhury,et al.  Analysis of normalized difference and surface temperature observations over southeastern Australia , 1991 .

[93]  T. Carlson,et al.  Satellite and ground-based microclimate and hydrologic analyses coupled with a regional urban growth model , 2003 .

[94]  Le Jiang,et al.  A methodology for estimation of surface evapotranspiration over large areas using remote sensing observations , 1999 .

[95]  Dale A. Quattrochi,et al.  Coupling thermal infrared and visible satellite measurements to infer biophysical variables at the land surface. , 2003 .