Land surface temperature derived from the SSM/I passive microwave brightness temperatures

Passive microwave brightness temperatures from the Defense Meteorological Space Program Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) were used to determine surface temperature over land areas in the central plains of the United States. A regression analysis comparing all of the SSM/I channels and minimum screen air temperatures (representing the surface temperature) showed good correlations, with root-mean-square errors of 2-3 degC. Pixels containing large amounts of water, snow, and falling rain, as classified with SSM/I brightness temperatures, were excluded from the analysis. The use of independent ground truth data such as soil moisture or land surface type was not required to obtain the correlations between brightness temperatures and surface temperatures