Relationship between altitude and LST derived from Landsat-TM

Surface temperature is one of the most important parameter for estimating the effect of climatic change on glaciers and it is a key requirement for input to energy balance models. For the Indian Himalayas, such measurements are scarce and difficult to obtain. Weather station network is very sparse and mostly weather stations are established near around glacier terminus or far from glaciers at lower. Since temperature analysis of different altitude zones are important for observing the effects of climate change with respect of altitude. Unfortunately, estimating surface temperature using traditional weather-station based meteorological observations is not a feasible solution for upper reach of glaciers. Therefore, through remote sensing studies, a synoptic view of the Himalayan region can be established, and used for regional climatological studies. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the relationships between glacier surface temperature with altitude and location.