I am trying to calculate the surface temp. of debris cover glacier of Nepalese Himalaya? For this application which satellite image is better?
LandSat would be the most appropriate data source in this case my friend. you can download your data for free.
Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery has been extensively used in mapping debris cover and other relevant analysis. SRTM data may also be used as an ancillary data to facilitate the analysis. Please refer to following links.
1) http://www.ipublishing.co.in/jggsvol1no12010/voltwo/EIJGGS3071.pdf
2) http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/1317/2014/tc-8-1317-2014.pdf
3) http://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/377/2014/tc-8-377-2014.pdf
4) https://www.ufpe.br/cgtg/SIMGEOIV/CD/artigos/Todos_Artigos/001_4.pdf
To download Landsat data, follow this link:
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
Hope it helps!
You can gain sea surface temperature and land surface temperature from MODIS imagery. To give more information about this satellite sensor and its accuracy, you can refer to my article " Investigation and Validation of MODIS SST in the Northern Persian Gulf'.
I agree with Jibran, LANDSAT may be your best freely available option, but still have a look at some other options and questions relevant for surface temperature estimation using satellite data and subsequent analysis.
1. ASTER - Surface Kinetic Temperature (AST_08) On demand product (90 m with 5 Thermal Infrared Bands)
2. Landsat ( 60 to 120 m) - 2 Thermal Infrared Bands
3. MODIS - Terra/Aqua LST - 1 Km
Needless to say, Emissivity has to be taken into account if accurate Surface Temperatures are to be estimated. ASTER scores better than Landsat because of 5 TIR bands as the TES algorithm can be applied to separate the temperature and emissivity. But I think due to better temporal resolutions Landsat may be preferred with 60 m to 120 m resolutions even though they have only 2 TIR bands. Then there is always MODIS with much better temporal coverage but with a trade off in pixel size.
Additionally, I think you may also want to consider some of these questions which came to my mind. What would be the ideal time to acquire satellite images of your study area for LST estimation? Time of satellite image acquisitions may not be in your control but if you have the possibility to get Airborne Thermal Infrared Data with high resolution (
Dear Rakesh,
be careful with Landsat8 data, as recently it has an anomaly in TIRS band. Here you can find the updates about Landsat mission:
http://landsat.usgs.gov/mission_headlines2015.php
I have used the MODIS LST products before and the values were very good
Without any doubt, You can use Landsat to compute the Land Surface Temperature (LST). The main advantage is long historic coverage and easy to process. If you need a coarse resolution data you can download ready-made LST images of MODIS from USGS earth explorer.
In addition to all the existing sources already mentioned by others, ESA is about to add the SLSTR instrument (Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer) onboard the Sentinel-3 mission. Launch is still planned for december (to my best knowledge), first data should then be available to the public summer 2016:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-3A_shows_off
MODIS is a good choice. although Landsat thermal band has been extensively used!
High spatial resolution of Landsat Thermal band makes it a better choice