Retrieval of emissivity and land surface temperature from MODIS

In this study, emissivity and land surface temperature (LST) were retrieved using the previously developed algorithms and Aqua/MODIS data. And sensitivity of estimated emissivity and LST to the predefined values, such as land cover, normalized difference vegetation index (NOVI) and spectral emissivity were investigated. The methods used for emissivity and LST were vegetation cover method (VCM) and four different split-window algorithms. The spectral emissivity retrieved by VCM was not sensitive to the NOVI error but more sensitive to the land cover error. The comparison of LST showed that the LST was systematically different without regard to the land cover and season. And the LST was very sensitive to the emissivity error excepting the Uliveri et al. This preliminary result indicates that more works are needed for the retrieval of reliable LST from satellite data.