LAND SURFACE ASSIMILATION

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SKIN TEMPERATURE DATA ASSIMILATION

Land surface temperature (LST, or "skin" temperature) lies at the heart of the surface energy balance and is a key variable in weather and climate models. LST also plays an important role in the assimilation of atmospheric remote sensing observations because atmospheric retrieval algorithms (or forward radiative transfer modeling) for surface-sensitive channels require LST information (and would also benefit from enhanced soil moisture and snow estimates). Land data assimilation systems use numerical land surface models along with observations of land surface temperature and surface meteorological observations to provide enhanced estimates of land surface temperature conditions.

Research highlights

• A Comparison of Clear-Sky Land Skin Temperature from GEOS-5 and from Geostationary Satellite Retrievals (2012)

• Assimilation of satellite-derived skin temperature observations into land surface models (2009)