SIMPLE AIR TEMPERATURE ESTIMATION METHOD FROM MODIS SATELLITE IMAGES ON A REGIONAL SCALE

Agricultural studies on a regional scale about water balance and evapotranspiration estimation, among others, require estimating air temperature (Ta) spatial variation since the generally low density of weather stations does not allow obtaining such data for a specific area. The aim of this study was to estimate air temperature through atmospheric profiles provided by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on a regional level. One of the present-day methodologies estimates Ta through vertical temperature profiles, which is why modifications to this methodology were proposed for zoning, surface elevation, and pressure/altitude ratios. By applying this new methodology, better Ta estimates were obtained by replacing the MODIS sensor surface elevation with those of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Finally, it was possible to estimate Ta spatial variation only from remotely sensed data in various geomorphological areas.