Influence of varying sensor characteristics on LST estimations in a glacial terrain

Present work aims at analyzing the influence of differences in sensor specifications on the estimated land surface temperature (LST) in a glacier terrain. LST has been estimated using thermal infrared bands of Landsat-7 ETM+, TM and Terra ASTER satellite data in parts of Chenab basin, Jammu & Kashmir. The standard kinetic temperature product of ASTER (AST08) has been used as reference. Results show that radiometric and spatial resolutions of the TIR sensors have great impact on LST. While TIR sensor with high radiometric resolution picks up subtle temperature variations of homogeneous classes (glaciated terrain), the sensors with high spatial resolution suitably characterize the LST of the heterogeneous classes (non-glaciated terrain).