An improved method for separating soil and vegetation component temperatures based on diurnal temperature cycle model and spatial correlation

This paper proposed an improved method for separating soil and vegetation component temperatures from one pixel land surface temperature (LST) using multi-pixel and multi-temporal data. The two main features of the method are (1) the use of a diurnal temperature cycle (DTC) model to describe component temperatures and (2) the application of a spatial weighting matrix to consider the spatial correlation of component temperatures. The proposed method was evaluated using an extensive simulated dataset with five component temperature types, three LST errors and 69 fractional vegetation cover (FVC) types, and field measurements with a high temporal frequency. Due to the time extendibility of DTC model, the possibility for retrieving component temperatures at any time was analyzed. Correspondingly, the schemes for selecting the best observations for four representative periods, i.e., 10:00–12:00, 09:00–18:00, 18:00–03:00 (on the next day) and 09:00–03:00, were determined. The validations showed satisfactory accuracies, and it was found that the errors were significantly influenced by the original LST retrieval error. In addition, the difference between the ideal temperature pattern from the DTC model and the actual temperature variation also affected the accuracy of the temporally extended component temperatures. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses indicated that the separation accuracy was independent of the uncertainty of the component emissivity but was influenced by FVC. Specifically, the retrieval accuracy was sensitive to the size and variation of FVC, and the latter had a more significant influence, but the result was less sensitive to the retrieval error and angular effect of FVC. Considering its accuracy, operability and robustness, the proposed method is effective for separating soil and vegetation component temperatures. •An improved method for separating soil and vegetation component temperatures was proposed.•A diurnal temperature cycle model was used to describe component temperatures.•The best schemes to estimate component temperatures at any time were determined.•The influences of LST retrieval error, emissivity uncertainty and FVC were analyzed in detail.