Letter to the EditorRetrieval of land surface temperature from combined AVHRR data

Accurate retrievals of land surface temperature (LST) from space are of high interest for studies of land surface processes. Here, an operationally applicable method to retrieve LST from NOAA/AVHRR data is proposed, which combines a split-window technique (SWT) for atmospheric correction with a Normalised Difference Vegetation Index threshold method for the retrieval of land surface emissivity. Preliminary results of LST retrievals with this "combined method" are in good agreement with ground truth measurements for bare soil and wheat crops. The results are also compared with results from the same SWT but using emissivities from laboratory measurements.Key words. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (radiation processes; instruments and techniques) – Radio science (remote sensing)