Comparison of two representative land surface temperature and emissivity separation methods for hyperspectral infrared spectroradiometer data

To compare and evaluate the performance of iterative spectrally smooth temperature and emissivity separation method (ISSTES) and linear emissivity constraint temperature and emissivity separation method (LECTES) on land surface temperature (LST) and land surface emissivity (LSE) estimation, the simulation data for hyperspectral infrared spectroradiometer are used. The results reveal that the LST can be retrieved within the accuracy of 1 K at various conditions for both methods. However, the 0.01 accuracy of LSE depends on the method selected and the noise level. The ISSTES method should be taken full consideration when it used to retrieve LSE for the warm and wet atmosphere. It is advised that the ISSTES method is used for cold and dry atmosphere and the LECTES method for warm and wet atmosphere. The noises in the ground measurements may be have more effects on the accuracies of LST and LSE than those in the atmospheric downwelling measurements.