Int J Appl 

Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Int J Appl Earth Obs Geoinformation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jag

Elevation-dependent warming of land surface temperatures in the Andes T

assessed using MODIS LST time series (2000–2017)
⁎
Jaime Aguilar-Lomea, , Raúl Espinoza-Villara,b,c, Jhan-Carlo Espinozab,d, Joel Rojas-Acuñaa,
Bram Leo Willemsc, Walter-Martín Leyva-Molinaa,c
a
Laboratorio de Teledetección, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru
b
Instituto Geofísico del Perú (IGP), Lima, Peru
c
Centro de Competencias del Agua (CCA), Lima, Peru
d
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, IRD, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE, UMR 5001), 38000 Grenoble, France

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this study, we report on the assessment of elevation-dependent warming processes in the Andean region
Tropical Andes between 7 °S and 20 °S, using Land Surface Temperature (LST). Remotely sensed LST data were obtained from
Land surface warming Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor in an 8-day composite, at a 1 km resolution,
Remote sensing and from 2000 to 2017 during austral winter (June-July-August, JJA). We analysed the relation between mean
High mountains
monthly daytime LST and mean monthly maximum air temperature. This relation is analysed for different types
of coverage, obtaining a significant correlation that varies from 0.57 to 0.82 (p < 0.01). However, effects of
change in land cover were ruled out by a previous comparative assessment of trends in daytime LST and nor-
malized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The distribution of the winter daytime LST trend was found to be
increasing in most areas, while decreasing in only a few areas. This trend shows that winter daytime LST is
increasing at an average rate of 1.0 °C/decade. We also found that the winter daytime LST trend has a clear
dependence on elevation, with strongest warming effects at higher elevations: 0.50 °C/decade at
1000–1500 masl, and 1.7 °C/decade above 5000 masl. However, the winter nighttime LST trend shows a steady
increase with altitude increase. The dependence of rising temperature trends on elevation could have severe
implications for water resources and high Andean ecosystems.

1. Introduction
An upward trend in air temperature over high-elevation regions has
attracted much attention within the scientific community in recent
years (Pepin and Lundquist, 2008; Fan et al., 2015; Vuille et al., 2015).
The Andes are the most important mountain range in the Southern
Hemisphere, with a maximum elevation of more than 6000 masl in
tropical and subtropical sections. The Andes represent, therefore, a
formidable obstacle to the tropospheric flow promoting tropical-extra-
tropical flow interactions, especially along their eastern flank
(Garreaud, 2009; Garreaud et al., 2009).
The limited availability of weather station data reveals several
patterns of climate change in the Tropical Andes during the twentieth
century. At the regional scale, substantial evidence is reported for the
warming of air temperature by 0.01 °C/year between 1939 and 2006
(Vuille et al., 2008). This heating rate is similar to rates recorded in
earlier studies, 0.010-0.011 °C/year for 1939–1998 and 0.015 °C/year
for 1950–1994 (Vuille and Bradley, 2000; Vuille et al., 2003). In the
Amazonian-Andean basin of Peru, Lavado et al. (2013) showed an
upward trend in the average air temperature of 0.009 °C/year for the
period 1965-2007. Huayao station (in Huancayo, Peru) has one of the
longest records of maximum air temperature (1921-present) in the
Central Peruvian Andes. The trend analysis of the referred variable
recorded at this station showed an increase of 0.024 °C/year between
1950 and 2002 (IGP, 2005b) and of 0.03 °C/year between 1965 and
2006 (SENAMHI, 2011).
Analysis of temperature as a function of elevation in the tropical
Andes shows continuous warming at higher elevations during the
period 1950–2010 (Vuille et al., 2015). These changes in air tempera-
ture could significantly modify the hydrological cycle in mountains
(Nijssen et al., 2001). Thus, in the tropical Andes, a significant decrease
in glacier mass balance has been reported and many glaciers could
disappear in the coming decades, especially those below 5400 masl
(Rabatel et al., 2013; Yarleque et al., 2018). Glacier retreat in the Andes

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jaguilarlome@gmail.com (J. Aguilar-Lome).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2018.12.013
Received 16 April 2018; Received in revised form 22 December 2018; Accepted 28 December 2018
Available online 12 January 2019
0303-2434/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
is more evident during El Niño years, which induces higher air tem-
peratures than normal (Rabatel et al., 2013). Nevertheless, apart from
air temperature, the relationship between local/regional climate and
glacier retreat responds to many other factors (Sicart et al., 2008,
2015). Rangwala and Miller (2012) discussed mechanisms which in-
crease air temperature at high elevations; these include albedo-snow
feedback, cloud feedback, water vapor feedback and aerosol feedback.
As for the extent to which these mechanisms may be relevant to the
Andean region in terms of future availability of water resources is not
yet fully known (Vuille et al., 2015; Buytaert et al., 2017; Vuille et al.,
2018).
Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an essential parameter of phy-
sical processes occurring on the Earth's surface at global and regional
scales. Variations in LST are a response to several surface-atmosphere
interactions, which includes energy flows between the atmosphere and
the surface of the Earth (Wan and Dozier, 1996). LST provides in-
formation about temporal and spatial variations in the balance of
temperature of the soil surface and is important for environmental
studies and management of water resources (Li et al., 2013). Due to its
importance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
recommended including long-term LST data, based on satellite remote
sensing, in global warming studies. This would help to overcome lim-
itations typically found in conventional air temperature recorded at
weather stations (Houghton et al., 2001) in a time period restricted to
the satellite era. Quin et al. (2009) analysed warming as a function of
the elevation using nighttime LST data from images gallery Terra/
MODIS on the Tibet Plateau (China) for the period of 2000-2006. This
study showed a rise in the rate of temperature at 3000 to 4800 masl.
Salama et al. (2012) analysed LST anomalies trend, retrieved from the
SSM/I (Special Microwave Imager) sensor on the Tibet Plateau for the
period 1987-2008. This trend analysis showed that the monthly and
annual standardized anomalies are changing at a rate of 0.05 °C/year.
Recently, Mao et al. (2017) reported that during the period 2001–2012,
the LST is increasing slightly in the Southern Hemisphere, although this
increase is insignificant.
MODIS LST data has been frequently used to estimate air tem-
perature (Vancutsem et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2017).
Shen and Leptoukh (2011) indicated that LST and air temperature have
a close connection due to heat exchange between land and air.
Mildrexler et al. (2011) found a strong positive correlation between the
annual maximum LST from Aqua/MODIS and annual maximum air
temperature globally. Further, they indicated that in barren areas like
shrublands, grasslands, savannas and croplands the annual maximum
LST values range from 10°C to 20°C, which is hotter than the corre-
sponding annual maximum air temperature at higher elevations.
Regarding the MODIS LST and the air temperature relationship in
snow-capped sub-Artic mountains, Williamson et al. (2017) found that
the LST average is 5–7 °C, which is colder than both the downscaled and
MODIS temperature products for grid cells with > 90% snow cover.
Although LST and air temperature are strongly correlated (Benali et al.,
2012). Pepin et al. (2016) showed in their findings that LST and air
temperature require a careful comparison before LST can be used as an
approximation of air temperature in mountainous terrain.
MODIS products have been used in other research studies in the
Andean region. For example, Delbart et al. (2015) found that the de-
creasing trend in snow cover during winter, for the period 2001–2014,
clearly explains the observed decreasing trend in the annual water
discharge from four rivers (Mendoza, Tunuyán, Diamante, Atuel) in the
Argentinian Cuyo region. In mountain regions between Chile and Ar-
gentina, Cornwell et al. (2016) related the melt-season fluvial flows
with the snow water equivalent and obtained an R2 value of 0.80. The
latter was estimated by a combination of instrumental records in re-
motely sensed snow-covered areas and a snow energy balance model.
More recently, Saavedra et al. (2018) found that a large area (34
370 km2) of permanent snow coverage, between 29 °S and 36 °S, ex-
perienced a significant snow cover loss (2–5 less snowfall days per
120
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
year). This decrease in snow cover is correlated with a decrease in
precipitation and an increase in temperature; the correlation values
vary according to latitude and elevation. Thus, it is possible to assess
the effect of climate change on snow cover by using data processing
from a weather station and remote sensors.
In this study, we analysed austral winter data (June-July-August,
JJA) in the Peruvian Andes because this season is characterized by the
highest incidence of radiative frost across the region, associated with
low cloud cover, low atmospheric humidity and low soil moisture
(Saavedra and Takahashi, 2017; IGP, 2005a); whereas in other seasons
the presence of clouds in the region generates numerous missing and
abnormal values that affect the application of MODIS LST data (see
Figure A.1 in the supplementary figures).
Given these findings, and that little is known about LST trends in the
tropical Andes, this paper aims to: i) assess the relationship between
mean monthly LST and mean monthly maximum air temperature per
land cover type, during the period 2000–2015 (JJA), ii) assess the
austral winter (JJA) trends of daytime LST in the tropical Andes during
the period 2000–2017, and iii) analyse the relationship between the
LST trend and elevation, using winter daytime and nighttime LST data.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
The study area is the tropical Andean region between 7 °S and 20 °S,
above 1000 masl (Fig. 1). This region includes the South American
Altiplano (15° and 21 °S) and Lake Titicaca, which is on this plain.
Between 3000 and 3500 masl in the study area, there is a biome zone
called Puna, which is distinguished by a thermal and latitudinal limit
from other biomes such as Páramo and Jalca (Cuesta et al., 2009; Josse
et al., 2009). The dry highlands in the southern part of Peru and Bolivia
are highly seasonal, with their hydrological behavior controlled by
rainfall variability (Garreaud, 2009; Ochoa-Tocachi et al., 2016). Sev-
eral studies have shown that there is no clear relationship between
rainfall amount and altitude (Espinoza et al., 2009; Lavado et al.,
2013). In addition, extreme precipitation events are observed on the
eastern side of the Andes Mountain range, where precipitation ranges
from 250 to 6000 mm/year within a radius of a few kilometers
(Espinoza et al., 2015; Chavez and Takahashi, 2017; Junquas et al.,
2018).
The tropical Andes are characterized by a complex topography,
diverse climatic conditions and extraordinary biodiversity in their
ecosystems. In addition, they are constituted by three biogeographical
zones (Josse et al., 2009):
1) Humid Puna, is distributed from northern Peru to the central-eastern
side of the Andes mountains in Bolivia, and includes the Lake
Titicaca basin. This biogeographic zone covers a wide altitudinal
range, from 2000 masl in the inter-Andean valleys to more than
6000 masl at the highest peaks in the snow-capped mountains. As
for the climate, there is a clear separation between the warm rainy
season and the coldest and driest season. Anthropogenic activities
have reduced the forested areas of Queñoa (Polylepis Spp), which
have been replaced by shrubland and bushes in large areas.
2) Xerophytic Puna, is distributed mainly in the central-south of wes-
tern Bolivia and northwest of Argentina. This area extends from
2000 masl in the high valleys in the east to more than 6000 masl in
the snowy mountains and volcanoes in the western side of the
Andean mountain range, and includes the vast high plain -Altiplano-
which is located in the widest part of the Andes mountain range. The
climate in the Xerophytic Puna is tropical and markedly seasonal,
with extreme arid conditions in the dry season, which is noticeably
accentuated towards the south and the west, where the most ex-
tensive high mountain saline ecosystems of the Earth are found.
3) Yungas, extend from the north of Peru to the centre of Bolivia,
J. Aguilar-Lome et al. Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128

Fig. 1. Location map of the study area using the digital elevation model GTOPO30 (elevation ≥ 1000 masl). Elevation ranges are shown in the legend; black triangles
indicate the location of weather stations.

passing through the mountainous slopes of the eastern watersheds in The first daily MODIS LST (MOD11_L2) product is calculated from
the tropical Andes, between the Humid Puna (in the West) and the the brightness temperature using the generalized split window algo-
Amazon lowland (in the East). This zone covers altitudes from rithm proposed by Wan and Dozier (1996) only in cloud-free condi-
500 masl to more than 4000 masl. The vegetation is determined by tions.
the incidence of zonal trade winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean, The first daily MODIS LST (MOD11_L2) product is calculated from
which push against the great mountain barrier to generate almost the brightness temperature using the generalized split window algo-
constant cloudiness and fog through the process of convection, rithm proposed by Wan and Dozier (1996) only for cloud-free condi-
which in turn releases heavy rainfall throughout most of the year. tions.
1−ε Δε T + T32
Ts = C + ⎛B1 + B2 + B3 2 ⎞ 31
2.2. Data ⎝ ε ε ⎠ 2
1−ε Δε T31 − T32
+ ⎛A1 + A2 + A3 2 ⎞ ,
2.2.1. Land surface temperature (LST) ⎝ ε ε ⎠ 2 (1)
MODIS LST product (MOD11A2, version 006) obtained by Terra
(EOS) was downloaded from the USGS (United States Geological ε = 0.5(ε31 + ε32)
Survey) database. The MOD11A2 product is an 8-day compound of
Δε = (ε31 − ε32)
daily LST values (MOD11A1) at a spatial resolution of 1 km. This pro-
duct includes daytime and nighttime LST data, period of observation, Where T31 and T32 , are the brightness temperatures in the strips 31 and
zenith angle, quality reporting, amongst other layers (Wan et al., 2002; 32; ε32 and ε32 are the emissivities of land surface in these two bands,
Wan, 2008). From view time layers (day and night), we obtain that the which were estimated using the method based on emissivity classifi-
time of daytime and nighttime LST observation from Terra/MODIS on cation processes (Snyder and Wan, 1998; Snyder et al., 1998) according
the station Huayao (Peru) (12.047 °S, 75.320 °W) are between 09:54- to land cover type derived from the ground cover product (MOD12Q1)
10:54 and between 22:12-23:06 (local solar time), respectively. These and the snow cover product (MOD10L2); the coefficients Ai (i = 1,2, 3),
have a sun-synchronous, and near-polar orbit so they can travel from Bi (i = 1,2, 3) and C are determined by interpolation of the multi-
the North Pole to the South Pole on the sunlit side as the Earth rotates dimensional dataset into query tables.
below. As a result, they pass over Earth at approximately the same local Validation of MODIS LST daily products (V005) with 47 in-situ
time each day to ensure comparable daylight conditions during a day measurements under clear skies (the LST value range being −10 °C to
(Mao et al., 2017). 58 °C and 0.4 cm–3.5 cm for the water vapour column) shows greater

121
J. Aguilar-Lome et al. Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128

accuracy at 1 K in the majority of cases (at least 39 out of 47), and the
root mean square deviation (RMSD) is less than 0.7 K for all cases (Wan,
2008).
2.2.2. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
The MODIS product MOD13A3 (version 006) NDVI data for the
period January 2001 - December 2017 was obtained from the USGS
database and used to calculate dynamic vegetation activity. The NDVI
data have spatial resolutions of 1 km and a monthly temporal resolu-
tion. The NDVI is calculated with the distribution function, using at-
mospheric correction of the surface reflectance (bidirectional re-
flectance distribution function - BRDF) masked by water, clouds, heavy
aerosol and cloud shadows (Vermote and Vermeulen, 1999; Gao et al.,
2002). MODIS Vegetation Index product (VI) was obtained using so-
phisticated methods to reduce atmospheric effects, clouds and ob-
servation angle variations (Huete et al., 2002). Besides the vegetation
index, the MOD13A3 product contains a layer of pixel information on
reliability which describes the NDVI quality values per pixel. This in-
formation on reliability is a decimal number that classifies the pixel into
five categories: -1, fill/no data; 0, good data; 1, marginal data; 2, snow/
ice; and 3, cloud (Solano et al., 2010).
2.2.3. Digital elevation model (DEM)
The GTOPO30 (Global Topographic Data) digital elevation model
was developed over three years by USGS, finalized in the late 1996.
reliability (QC_day), it is an average error smaller than or equal to 0.01
or emissivity smaller than or equal to 1 K for LST (Wan et al., 2004). If
this degree of accuracy is not achieved for the estimated values of LST
and emissivity, the pixel is classified by another quality indicator and
error estimator which is provided by 4–7 bits of QC_day code (Wan,
2007). Only the best quality pixels, having an error smaller than or
equal to 2 K in the calculated LST, have been used for this study.
Once these corrections are made, the average monthly LST is cal-
culated as the sum of all 8-day products, provided for a particular
month and divided by all nonzero occurrences. IFOV (Instantaneous
Field of View) data in degrees Kelvin (K) was transformed to degrees
Celsius (°C).
To evaluate the accuracy of LST data, the monthly average of day-
time MODIS LST data was selected for 20 areas of 3 km by 3 km, each
with a weather station; this follows the methodology developed by
François et al. (1999). The relationship between monthly daytime
MODIS LST data and mean monthly maximum air temperature for the
period of 2000–2015 (JJA) per each land cover type was evaluated
using a linear regression. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used
as a goodness-of-fit test.
Trends for daytime and nighttime winter MODIS LST were calcu-
lated using Sen's method (Sen, 1968) for each pixel, with the following
equation:
x j − xk ⎞
β = Median ⎛⎜ ⎟, ∀ j > k

GTOPO30 was obtained from various topographic information sources,
including vectors and DEM images. Grid spacing is 30 arc seconds
(0.008333333 ° or 1 km) (EROS Data Center, 1996).
2.2.4. Air temperature data
A mean monthly maximum air temperature (Tmax) dataset was
provided by the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of Peru
(SENAMHI-Peru). The average monthly maximum air temperature is
the mean of daily maximum air temperatures in any given month. This
data was collected from 2000 to 2015 during the austral winter (JJA)
from 20 weather stations distributed above 1000 masl. Fig. 1 shows the
locations of these weather stations, and Table 1 lists the name, geo-
graphic coordinates and elevation for each station.
2.3. Methodology
The quality of the LST data is defined based on the layer of
⎝ j−k ⎠ (2)
Where x j and xk represent data values at times j and k , respectively, and
β is the time series slope (trend). β > 0 indicates a positive trend, while
β < 0 indicates a negative trend. This non-parametric method does not
require data to be normally distributed and is not sensitive to outliers.
Mann-Kendall's test was used to evaluate the statistical significance of
the trends. This test has been widely applied in studies on hydro-me-
teorological trends and other environmental time series (Yu et al.,
2002; Al Buhairi, 2010; Chattopadhyay and Edwards, 2016).
Human-induced land use and land cover changes are an important
driver for the rising trend of LST (Jiang and Tian, 2010). In the plateau
region of north-central Nigeria, urbanization and agricultural activities,
including animal grazing, were responsible for the gradual loss of ve-
getation cover and rising average LST (Odunuga and Badru, 2015). Xu
et al. (2013) indicates that the contribution of impervious surface to
regional LST change can be up to six times higher than the sum of the
contributions of vegetation and water. van Leeuwen et al. (2011) found

Table 1
Weather stations details.
Station Latitude Longitude Elevation Pixel elevation (m) Land cover types
(m)

Paucaray −14.050 −73.634 3206 3206 Cropland

Curahuasi −13.552 −72.735 2879 2879 Shrubland
Urubamba −13.3106 −72.124 3863 3041 Shrubland
Yauri −14.817 −71.417 3925 3925 Grassland/shrubland
Ubinas −16.382 −70.857 3551 3551 Shrubland
Ayaviri −14.873 −70.593 3943 3943 Urban areas
Imata −15.836 −71.088 4519 4449 Sparse vegetation/shrubland
Puno −15.826 −70.012 3812 3847 Urban areas
Huancane −15.201 −69.754 3890 3898 Grassland or savannas
Pampahuta −15.484 −70.676 4400 4368 Grassland or savannas
Mañazo −14.8 −70.067 3920 4084 Grassland
Moquegua −17.169 −70.932 1450 1456 Forest/shrubland
Chuapalca −17.305 −69.644 4177 4220 Sparse vegetation
Huayao −12.038 −75.338 3360 3371 Vegetation/cropland
Matucana −11.839 −76.378 2348 2699 Shrubland
Huamachuco −7.819 −78.040 3200 3254 Cropland/grassland
Andahuaylas −13.649 −73.367 2865 3137 Forest or shrubland/grassland
Cajabamba −7.622 −78.051 2480 2631 Forest or shrubland
Huánuco −9.952 −76.249 1947 1988 Forest or shrubland/grassland
La Angostura −15.183 −71.635 4265 4265 Grassland/shrubland

122
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
that changes in day‐night LSTs were highly correlated to the spatial
pattern of deforestation in different states of Brazil in the Brazilian
Amazon.
The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is an indicator
of vegetation health (Kinyanjui, 2011), and has been widely used to
give an idea of vegetation cover status (Horion et al., 2013). We used
NDVI to detect land cover changes. In order to eliminate any abnormal
remnants of NDVI values in monthly images, these time series were
filtered using spatial-temporal iteration methods and the Savitzky-
Golay filter to replace the pixels eliminated by quality bands (Chen
et al., 2014; Lili et al., 2015). The winter trend of NDVI was then cal-
culated for each pixel using Sen's method (Sen, 1968) for the period
2000 - 2017. The NDVI trends provide information about changes in
land cover during the study period (Hutchinson et al., 2015; Xu et al.,
2016), which are explained by an abrupt increase or decrease in the
daytime LST trend. In the case of the winter daytime LST trend, only
areas where the NDVI trend did not change significantly were analysed.
GLOBCOVER land cover product from the European Space Agency
(ESA) (Bontemps et al., 2011) was used to identify land cover types
around weather stations, and to exclude water bodies and permanent
snow.
3. Results
3.1. Relationship between daytime LST and maximum air temperature
The relationship between mean monthly daytime LST (LSTd) and
mean monthly maximum air temperature (Tmax) showed statistically
significant linear correlations (0.57 ≤ R ≤ 0.82, p < 0.01) (Fig. 2a-d).
The highest value of R corresponds to shrubland and the lowest value to
grasslands. The relationship LSTd/Tmax is closely associated with each
land cover type. The relationship LSTd/Tmax for grassland in all sta-
tions located below 4265 masl (black dots in Fig. 2c), and in stations
located above 4400 masl (gray dots in Fig. 2c) are illustrated in scat-
terplots; the former is shifted toward a higher temperature distribution,
compared to the latter.
For grassland, the value of the slope is relatively low for stations
located above 4400 masl (grey dots in Fig. 2c), while in shrubland the
value is higher (Fig. 2a). The average of the differences (LSTd-Tmax)
varies from 3.7 °C in shrubland areas (Fig. 2a) to 14.8 °C in grassland
areas (grey dots in Fig. 2c). The LSTd/Tmax relationship for urban areas
(Fig. 2d) shows that Tmax is gradually increased from 12.4 °C to
19.4 °C. The weather station is located in urban areas between 3812 and
3927 masl and the average Tmax recorded is 16.1 °C (Fig. 2d).
123
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
3.2. LST trend
Fig. 3a shows the trends of winter daytime LST in the Tropical
Andean region. In Fig. 3a, grey areas within the study region represent
non-significant trend values (p > 0.05), or areas that were dis-
criminated because of land cover change through the NDVI trend. The
majority of areas show an increase in the daytime LST during winter,
with highest values in the northern part (˜12 °S).
A negative LST trend is observed between zone boundaries with an
influence of coastal cloudiness at about 1200–1500 masl. Thus, an arid
zone of variable extent is developed under the influence of the Pacific
Anticyclone and large-scale atmospheric subsidence (Ubeda and
Estremera, 2013). Moreover, a negative LST trend occurred in the
western Andes and in the south-eastern part of the study area during the
period of study. The LST trends in Fig. 3a increase by a rate of 0.11 °C
per year, considering the whole of the studied area. This positive trend
gradually increases to reach the highest regional value of 0.3 °C/year,
for instance at high elevations of section A-A’ in the central Peruvian
Andes (Fig. 3b). Over this region, there is a warming trend that reaches
a peak rate of 0.29 °C per year on the eastern side of the Andes range.
Fig. 3a also shows a significant downward trend west of the Andes
between 1000 masl to 2000 masl, with an average rate of -0.12 °C/year.
On the other hand, the cross-section over the Peruvian and Bolivian
Altiplano shows a significant warming trend in areas above 3000 masl.
This trend varies between 0.07 °C/year and 0.21 °C/year (Fig. 3c).
Mean monthly maximum air temperature for winter season during
the period 2000–2015 was used to verify the LST trend. Maximum air
temperature during winter (average across all the 20 stations located in
the Peruvian Andes) is increasing at a rate of 0.10 °C/year (p ≤ 0.01),
which is consistent with the results of previous studies (López-Moreno
et al., 2016; Vicente-Serrano et al., 2018). However, LTS trends in the
tropical Andes have not been provided before.
To summarize the average trend of warming as a function of ele-
vation, we show the average for the winter daytime LST trends for the
period 2000–2017, at intervals of 500 m (Fig. 4). The LST trend in-
creases at 1000–5000 masl, indicating that areas at higher-elevations
exhibit higher rates of increasing LST (up to 0.18 °C/year). Fig. 5 shows
the average for the winter nighttime LST trends for the period of
2000–2017, with an interval of 500 m at 1000 masl. Although a slight
reduction in the increasing trend was observed at 3500–4000 masl, the
warming trend increases slightly at higher elevations, particularly
above 4000 masl.
Fig. 2. Observed LSTd/Tmax scatterplot for (a)
shrubland, (b) cropland, (c) grassland for stations lo-
cated below 4265 masl (black dots) and above 4400
masl (grey dots) and (d) urban areas. R values and
linear equations are indicated. (For interpretation of
the references to colour in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article).
J. Aguilar-Lome et al. Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128

Fig. 3. (a) Spatial distribution of the daytime LST (°C/year) trend in the winter quarterly average for the period 2000–2017, with 95% (p ≤ 0.05) significance
obtained using Sen’s method. Areas with land-cover change have been removed. In (b) A-A' and (c) B-B', two transects of temperature variation (points) and altitude
(lines) are shown graphically.

4. Discussion
4.1. Relationship between daytime LST and maximum air temperature
The month-to-month comparison of the relationship between the
maximum air temperature and the corresponding daytime LST data
indicates that correlations vary from one land cover type to another.
These correlations are significant and admissible for comparative pur-
poses. Differences between LST data and maximum air temperature
among weather stations may be attributed to:
4.1.1. Different physical parameters
Air temperature is measured with a thermometer exposed to air at
1.25–2 m, protected from direct solar radiation (OMM, 2008). Whereas
LST is the temperature measured at surface level (Dash et al., 2001).
LST is defined by the radiation emitted by the land surface observed by
the satellite sensors at the instantaneous viewing angle (Becker and Li,
1995; Norman and Becker, 1995; Wan et al., 2004). LSTd tends to be
greater than Tmax and the difference increases with rising temperature
(Fig. 2a-d). During the same period of study, Tmax stayed below 30 °C
whereas LSTd exceeded 30 °C. The LST can be 20 °C warmer than the
corresponding Tmax in bare soil with sparse vegetation. This variation
of LSTd in relation to Tmax shows that LST and air temperature have
different physical meanings, magnitudes, responses to changing atmo-
spheric conditions and diurnal cycle (Jin and Dickinson, 2010).
Mildrexler et al. (2011) indicated that the large difference between

124
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
Fig. 4. Averages of winter daytime LST trends for all study areas, at 500-m
intervals, in the tropical Andes (7 °S and 20 °S). The values at the top of bars are
the numbers of MODIS pixels at each elevation range. The error bars represent
the standard deviation of LST trend for each range of 500-m, mutiplied by 0.1 to
be visible.
Fig. 5. Average of winter nighttime LST trends for all study areas, at 500-m
intervals, in the tropical Andes (7 °S and 20 °S). The values at the top of bars are
the numbers of MODIS pixels at each elevation range. The error bars represent
the standard deviation of LST trend for each range of 500-m, multiplied by 0.1
to be visible.
LSTmax (annual maximum LST) and Tamax (annual maximum air
temperature) at higher temperatures captures the important distinction
between the radiative measurement, registered on the Earth’s surface
where thermal energy is more concentrated, and the air temperature,
measured in a shelter at 1.5 m above the ground.
4.1.2. Differential spatial integration
The meteorological information represents a punctual value of 10-
100 m2 (François et al., 1999), and the MODIS LST information is the
product which integrates data for every 1 km2 into a unique value
where each pixel may well contain several different land types. Each
land cover type has distinct interactions with the atmosphere which
125
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
may result in different local weather conditions (Mildrexler et al.,
2011). The shrubland land cover type considered includes weather
stations located within the forest biome where the LSTd/Tmax re-
lationship is near 1:1 (Fig. 2a). The leaves of plants actively exchange
absorbed solar radiation through evaporation. Therefore, during day-
light hours, leaves maintain a temperature close to air temperature
(Nemani et al., 1993). Mildrexler et al. (2011) found that the daytime
LST data from Aqua was highly correlated (R = 0.92) with the max-
imum air temperature in shrubland areas globally, and Shen and
Leptoukh (2011) estimated maximum air temperature using daytime
LST data from Terra finding a mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.4 °C for
shrubland areas in central and eastern Eurasia.
The LSTd/Tmax scatterplot shows that grassland areas present
warmer temperatures compared to shrubland areas. For land with
scarce vegetation, IFOV of the remote sensing devices include both
canopy and soil background elements. Consequently, the effective
surface temperature is dependent on the relative proportions captured
within the IFOV of the sensor for soil versus canopy cover (Friedl and
Davis, 1994). Combined, these factors result in the potential for a large
apportionment of incoming solar radiation into sensible heat, resulting
in a high Bowen ratio (ratio of sensible heat flux to latent heat flux) and
high daytime LST values (Mildrexler et al., 2011). However, Parida
et al. (2008) indicated that among the different vegetation types,
agriculture practiced in desert areas showed the highest surface tem-
perature, followed by rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture and
forest agriculture in the Gurajat state of India, with lower total rainfall
(June-October). Several studies have shown that daytime LST data and
maximum air temperature are correlated (Mildrexler et al., 2011; Shen
and Leptoukh, 2011; Yang et al., 2017). In addition to land cover
characteristics (Schwarz et al., 2012; Maeda and Hurskainen, 2014),
there are many factors that can influence the complex relationship
between daytime LST and maximum air temperature such as solar ra-
diation, cloud cover, soil moisture and surface roughness (Vancutsem
et al., 2010; Kloog et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2014). However, Zhang et al.
(2016) indicated that cloud cover mainly affects the fundamental re-
lationship between daytime LST and maximum air temperature, and
Williamson et al. (2014) concluded that MODIS LST data may change
its relationship with air temperature depending on the period of ag-
gregation, since it is often aggregated into multi-day composites to
mitigate data reductions caused by cloud cover.
4.2. LST trend
The trends for winter daytime LST are consistent with the results
presented by Vicente-Serrano et al. (2018), who showed that the
average maximum air temperature in Peru has a positive trend during
all months of the year, but becomes more pronounced during the winter
months (JJA). López-Moreno et al. (2016) reported changes in max-
imum air temperature during the cold season (JJA), with more het-
erogeneous trends; while statistically significant trends were found
mostly for the Bolivian Altiplano, during the period 1965-2012. Like-
wise, Vuille et al. (2015) showed that the air temperature trend has
gradually increased between 1950 and 2010.
The winter nighttime LST trend has a more homogeneous magni-
tude of change than the winter daytime LST trend. According to
Vicente-Serrano et al. (2018), in Peru, minimum air temperature
showed positive trends for every month of the year; nevertheless, these
trends did not show an increase as a function of elevation.
Falvey and Garreaud (2009) identified that temperatures on the
coastal side of the Andes were decreasing at a rate of -0.02 °C/year for
the period of 1979-2006. This cooling effect on the coastal side has
been attributed to a shift towards a negative phase of the Interdecadal
Pacific Oscillation (IPO) (Vuille et al., 2015). However, in the sub-
tropical Andes it continues to experience positive temperature trends
with respect to elevation (Vuille et al., 2015; Vicente-Serrano et al.,
2018). This is most likely due to anthropogenic warming, as suggested
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
by Vuille et al. (2015).
Giorgi et al. (1997) found a similar altitude-related warming effect
for the Swiss Alps through the use of regional climate models. They
attributed this amplified warming at high-elevations to a reduction in
snow and glacier cover, which decreases the surface albedo and in-
creases the absorption of solar radiation by the Earth's surface.
Pepin et al. (2015) discussed important mechanisms that contribute
towards elevation-dependent warming (EDW), such as snow albedo and
surface-based feedbacks, water vapour changes and latent heat release,
surface water vapour and radiative flux changes, surface heat loss and
temperature change, and aerosols. All these mechanisms lead to in-
creased warming with increased elevation, and it is believed that
combinations of these mechanisms may account for contrasting re-
gional patterns of EDW in many different mountain systems around the
world (Pepin et al., 2015).
Benali et al. (2012) described the LST as an indicative variable to
the net surface energy balance driven by the emission of long-wave
radiation from the surface. Consequently, it is likely that the surface
water vapour and radiative flux mechanism contributes most to higher
LST warming rates at high elevations, since outgoing longwave radia-
tion is one major mechanism through which land surface loses heat, and
is proportional to the fourth power of absolute temperature (the Ste-
fan–Boltzmann law) (Pepin et al., 2015). Vuille et al. (2015) indicated
that positive feedbacks, such as snow-albedo or download radiation
feedback, may have also contributed to increased warming at higher
elevations (see Figure A.2 in the supplementary figures).
Peru has more than 70% of the world's tropical glaciers and is being
affected by the accelerated retreat of most of these glaciers (López-
Moreno et al., 2014; Schauwecker et al., 2014; Vuille et al., 2008;
Rabatel et al., 2013; Yarleque et al., 2018).
5. Final comments
In this paper, we evaluate Land Surface Temperature (LST) trends
observed for the tropical Andean region and the South American
Altiplano. A linear correlation between the maximum air temperature
and MODIS LST daytime was analized. Trends in winter daytime LST
(2000–2017) demonstrated an increase in most parts of the study area,
with the exception of the semi-arid area in the western side of the Andes
and south of the study area where the trend is negative. Time series of
winter maximum air temperature (2000–2015) confirm this observa-
tion.
Daytime and nighttime LST trends show a clear difference in their
pattern of behaviour as a function of elevation. The daytime winter LST
shows a stronger positive trend with elevation. Nevertheless, the strong
warming pattern found in the daytime LST trend at higher elevations is
not present for the nighttime winter LST trend at higher elevations. This
study also confirms that the type of land cover has a notable influence
in the relationship between daytime LST and maximum air tempera-
ture.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by FONDECYT through the project:
“Monitoreo de la dinámica de fenómenos ambientales y climáticos ex-
tremos en el Perú usando la teledetección por satélite”, funded by
USAID through the PEER Project: “Strengthening resilience of Andean
river basin headwaters facing global change” (PGA-084063) and
“AGUA-ANDES: Ecological Infrastructure Strategies for Enhancing
Water Sustainability in the Semi-Arid Andes” (PGA-174194), as well as
by CONDESAN through the Project: "Investigación sobre una relación
de dependencia entre la tasa de cambio de temperatura y la altitud".
JCE received partial support of the AMANECER project funded by the
MOPGA program of the French Government. Additionally, we extend
our gratitude to the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of
Peru (SENAMHI-Peru) for providing data used in this study. Finally, the
126
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
authors are grateful to Nicole Chabaneix and to the anonymous re-
viewers for their contribution to improve this paper.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the
online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2018.12.013.
References
Al Buhairi, M.H., 2010. Analysis of monthly, seasonal and annual air temperature
variability and trends in Taiz City-Republic of Yemen. J. Environ. Prot. 1 (04), 401.
Becker, F., Li, Z.L., 1995. Surface temperature and emissivity at various scales: definition,
measurement and related problems. Remote. Sens. Rev. 12 (3-4), 225–253.
Benali, A., Carvalho, A.C., Nunes, J.P., Carvalhais, N., Santos, A., 2012. Estimating air
surface temperature in Portugal using MODIS LST data. Remote Sens. Environ. 124,
108–121.
Bontemps, S., Defourny, P., Bogaert, E.V., Arino, O., Kalogirou, V., Perez, J.R., 2011.
GLOBCOVER 2009-Products Description and Validation Report.
Buytaert, et al., 2017. Glacial melt content of water use in the tropical Andes. Environ.
Res. Lett. 12 (2017), 114014.
Chattopadhyay, S., Edwards, D.R., 2016. Long-term trend analysis of precipitation and air
temperature for kentucky, United States. Climate 4 (1), 10.
Chavez, S.P.y, Takahashi, K., 2017. Orographic rainfall hotspots in the Andes-Amazon
transition according to the TRMM precipitation radar and in situ data. J. Geophys.
Res. Atmos. 122.
Chen, L., Jin, Z., Michishita, R., Cai, J., Yue, J., Chen, D., Xu, B., 2014. Dynamic mon-
itoring of wetland cover changes using time-series remote sensing imagery. Ecol.
Inform. 24, 17–26.
Cornwell, E., Molotch, N.P., McPhee, J., 2016. Spatio-temporal variability of snow water
equivalent in the extra-tropical Andes Cordillera from distributed energy balance
modeling and remotely sensed snow cover. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 20 (1), 411.
Cuesta, F., Peralvo, M., Valarezo, N., 2009. Los bosques montanos de los Andes
Tropicales. Una evaluación regional de su estado de conservación y de su vulner-
abilidad a efectos del cambio climático. Serie investigación y sistematización. pp. 5.
Dash, P., Göttsche, F.M., Olesen, F.S., Fischer, H., 2001. Retrieval of land surface tem-
perature and emissivity from satellite data: physics, theoretical limitations and cur-
rent methods. J. Indian Soc. Remote. Sens. 29 (1-2), 23.
Delbart, N., Dunesme, S., Lavie, E., Madelin, M., Goma, R., 2015. Remote sensing of
Andean mountain snow cover to forecast water discharge of Cuyo rivers. J. Alpine
Res. Revue de géographie alpine 103–112.
EROS Data Center, 1996. GTOP030 Documentation, Universal Resourse Locator, Global
Land Information System. URL:. https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/GTOPO30.
Espinoza, J.C., Ronchail, J., Guyot, J.L., Cochonneau, G., Naziano, F., Lavado, W., De
Oliveira, E., Ponbosa, R., Vauchel, P., 2009. Spatio‐temporal rainfall variability in the
Amazon basin countries (Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador). Int. J.
Climatol. 29 (11), 1574–1594.
Espinoza, J.C., Chavez, S., Ronchail, J., Junquas, C., Takahashi, K., Lavado, W., 2015.
Rainfall hotspots over the southern tropical Andes: spatial distribution, rainfall in-
tensity, and relations with large-scale atmospheric circulation. Water Resour. Res. 51
(5), 3459–3475.
Falvey, M., Garreaud, R.D., 2009. Regional cooling in a warming world: recent tem-
perature trends in the southeast Pacific and along the west coast of subtropical South
America (1979–2006). J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 114, D4.
Fan, X., Wang, Q., Wang, M., Jiménez, C.V., 2015. Warming amplification of minimum
and maximum temperatures over high-elevation regions across the globe. PLoS One
10 (10), e0140213. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140213.
François, C., Bosseno, R., Vacher, J.J., Seguin, B., 1999. Frost risk mapping derived from
satellite and surface data over the Bolivian Altiplano. Agric. For. Meteorol. 95 (2),
113–137.
Friedl, M.A., Davis, F.W., 1994. Sources of variation in radiometric surface temperature
over a tallgrass prairie. Remote Sens. Environ. 48 (1), 1–17.
Gao, F., Jin, Y., Schaaf, C.B., Strahler, A.H., 2002. Bidirectional NDVI and atmospherically
resistant BRDF inversion for vegetation canopy. Ieee Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens. 40
(6), 1269–1278.
Garreaud, R.D., 2009. The Andes climate and weather. Adv. Geosci. 22, 3–11.
Garreaud, R.D., Vuille, M., Compagnucci, R., Marengo, J., 2009. Present-day south
american climate. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 281, 180–195.
Giorgi, F., Hurrell, J.W., Marinucci, M.R., Beniston, M., 1997. Elevation dependency of
the surface climate change signal: a model study. J. Clim. 10 (2), 288–296.
Horion, S., Cornet, Y., Erpicum, M., Tychon, B., 2013. Studying interactions between
climate variability and vegetation dynamic using a phenology based approach. Int. J.
Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 20, 20–32.
Houghton, J.T., Ding, Y., Griggs, D.J., Noguer, M., Van der Linden, P.J., Xiaosu, D., 2001.
Climate Change 2001, The Scientific Basis. Cambridge University Press.
Huete, A., Didan, K., Miura, T., Rodriguez, E.P., Gao, X., Ferreira, L.G., 2002. Overview of
the radiometric and biophysical performance of the MODIS vegetation índices.
Remote Sens. Environ. 83, 195–213.
Hutchinson, J.M., Jacquin, A., Hutchinson, S.L., Verbesselt, J., 2015. Monitoring vege-
tation change and dynamics on US Army training lands using satellite image time
series analysis. J. Environ. Manage. 150, 355–366.
Instituto Geofísico del Perú, 2005a. Diagnóstico de la Cuenca del Mantaro Bajo la Visión
del Cambio Climático Vol. II. Fondo editorial del Concejo Nacional del Ambiente,
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
Lima-Perú, pp. 90.
Instituto Geofísico del Perú, 2005b. Vulnerabilidad actual y futura ante el cambio
climático y medidas de adaptación en la cuenca del río Mantaro Vol. III Fondo
Editorial CONAM, Lima, Perú.
Jiang, J., Tian, G., 2010. Analysis of the impact of land use/land cover change on land
surface temperature with remote sensing. Procedia Environ. Sci. 2, 571–575.
Jin, M., Dickinson, R.E., 2010. Land surface skin temperature climatology: benefitting
from the strengths of satellite observations. Environ. Res. Lett. 5 (4), 044004.
Josse, C., Cuesta, F., Navarro, G., Barrena, V., Cabrera, E., Chacón-Moreno, E., Tovar, A.,
2009. Ecosistemas de los Andes del Norte y Centro. Secretaría General de la
Comunidad Andina, Programa Regional ECOBONA-Intercooperation, CONDESAN-
Proyecto Páramo Andino, Programa BioAndes, EcoCiencia, NatureServe, IAvH, LTA-
UNALM, ICAE-ULA, CDC-UNALM, RUMBOL SRL. Lima, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador,
Perú y Venezuela.
Junquas, C., Takahashi, K., Condom, T., Espinoza, J.C., Chavez, S., Sicart, J.E., Lebel, T.,
2018. Understanding the influence of orography over the precipitation diurnal cycle
and the associated atmospheric processes in the central Andes. Clim. Dyn.
Kinyanjui, M.J., 2011. NDVI‐based vegetation monitoring in Mau forest complex, Kenya.
Afr. J. Ecol. 49 (2), 165–174.
Kloog, I., Nordio, F., Coull, B.A., Schwartz, J., 2014. Predicting spatiotemporal mean air
temperature using MODIS satellite surface temperature measurements across the
Northeastern USA. Remote Sens. Environ. 150, 132–139.
Lavado, W., Labat, D., Ronchail, J., Espinoza, J.C., Guyot, J.L., 2013. Trends in rainfall
and temperature in the Peruvian Amazon-Andes basin over the last 40 years (1965-
2007). Hydrol. Process. 41, 2944–2957.
Li, Z., Tang, H., Wu, H., Ren, H., Yan, G., Wan, Z., Trigo, I., Sobrino, J., 2013. Satellite-
derived land surface temperature: current status and perspectives. Remote Sens.
Environ. 131, 14–37.
Lili, X., Baolin, L., Yecheng, Y., Xizhang, G., Tao, Z., 2015. A temporal-spatial iteration
method to reconstruct NDVI time series datasets. Remote Sens. (Basel) 8906–8924.
López-Moreno, J.I., Fontaneda, S., Bazo, J., Revuelto, J., Azorin-Molina, C., Valero-
Garcés, B., Morán-Tejeda, E., Vicente-Serrano, S.M., Zubieta, R., Alejo-Cochachín, J.,
2014. Recent glacier retreat and climate trends in Cordillera Huaytapallana. Peru.
Global and Planetary Change 112, 1–11.
López-Moreno, J.I., Morán‐Tejeda, E., Vicente‐Serrano, S.M., Bazo, J., Azorin‐Molina, C.,
Revuelto, J., Sánchez‐Lorenzo, A., Navarro‐Serrano, F., Aguilar, E., Chura, O., 2016.
Recent temperature variability and change in the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru. Int. J.
Climatol. 36 (4), 1773–1796.
Maeda, E.E., Hurskainen, P., 2014. Spatiotemporal characterization of land surface
temperature in Mount Kilimanjaro using satellite data. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 118
(3), 497–509.
Mao, K.B., Ma, Y., Tan, X.A., Shen, X.Y., Liu, G., Li, Z.L., Chen, J.M., Xia, L., 2017. Global
surface temperature change analysis based on MODIS data in recent twelve years.
Adv. Space Res. 59 (2), 503–512.
Mildrexler, D.J., Zhao, M., Running, S.W., 2011. A global comparison between station air
temperatures and MODIS land surface temperatures reveals the cooling role of for-
ests. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 116, G3.
Nemani, R., Pierce, L., Running, S., Goward, S., 1993. Developing satellite-derived esti-
mates of surface moisture status. J. Appl. Meteorol. 32 (3), 548–557.
Nijssen, B., O’Donnell, G.M., Hamlet, A.F., Lettenmaier, D.P., 2001. Hydrologic sensitivity
of global rivers to climate change. Clim. Change 50, 143–175.
Norman, J.M., Becker, F., 1995. Terminology in thermal infrared remote sensing of
natural surfaces. Remote. Sens. Rev. 12 (3-4), 159–173.
Ochoa-Tocachi, B.F., Buytaert, W., De Bièvre, B., Célleri, R., Crespo, P., Villacís, M.,
Gil‐Ríos, J., 2016. Impacts of land use on the hydrological response of tropical
Andean catchments. Hydrol. Process. 30 (22), 4074–4089.
Odunuga, S., Badru, G., 2015. Landcover change, land surface temperature, surface al-
bedo and topography in the Plateau Region of North-Central Nigeria. Land 4 (2),
300–324.
Organización Mundial de Meteorología, 2008. Guía de Instrumentos y Métodos de
Observación Meteorológica, vol. 8. pp. 773.
Parida, B.R., Oinam, B., Patel, N.R., Sharma, N., Kandwal, R., Hazarika, M.K., 2008. Land
surface temperature variation in relation to vegetation type using MODIS satellite
data in Gujarat state of India. Int. J. Remote Sens. 29 (14), 4219–4235.
Pepin, N.C., Lundquist, J.D., 2008. Temperature trends at high elevations: patterns across
the globe. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L14701.
Pepin, N., Bradley, R.S., Diaz, H.F., Baraër, M., Caceres, E.B., Forsythe, N., Fowler, H.,
Greenwood, G., Hashmi, M.Z., Liu, X.D., Miller, J.R., 2015. Elevation-dependent
warming in mountain regions of the world. Nat. Clim. Chang. 5 (5), 424.
Pepin, N.C., Maeda, E.E., Williams, R., 2016. Use of remotely sensed land surface tem-
perature as a proxy for air temperatures at high elevations: findings from a 5000 m
elevational transect across Kilimanjaro. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 121 (17), 9998.
Quin, J., Yang, K., Liang, S., Guo, X., 2009. The altitudinal dependence of recent rapid
warning over the Tibetan Plateau. Clim. Change 97, 321–327.
Rabatel, A., Francou, B., Soruco, A., Gomez, J., Cáceres, B., Ceballos, J.L., Basantes, R.,
Vuille, M., Sicart, J.E., Huggel, C., Scheel, M., 2013. Current state of glaciers in the
tropical Andes: a multi-century perspective on glacier evolution and climate change.
Cryosphere 7, 81–102.
Rangwala, I., Miller, J.R., 2012. Climate change in mountains: a review of elevation-
dependent warming and its possible causes. Clim. Change 114 (3-4), 527–547.
Saavedra, M., Takahashi, K., 2017. Physical controls on frost events in the central Andes
of Peru using in situ observations and energy flux models. Agric. For. Meteorol. 239,
58–70.
Saavedra, F.A., Kampf, S.K., Fassnacht, S.R., Sibold, J.S., 2018. Changes in Andes snow
cover from MODIS data, 2000–2016. Cryosphere 12 (3), 1027.
Salama, M.S., Van der Velde, R., Zhong, L., Ma, Y., Ofwono, M., Su, Z., 2012. Decadal
127
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
variations of land surface temperature anomalies observed over the Tibetan Plateau
by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) from 1987 to 2008. Clim. Change
114 (3-4), 769–781.
Schauwecker, S., Rohrer, M., Acuña, D., Cochachin, A., Dávila, L., Frey, H., Giráldez, C.,
Gómez, J., Huggel, C., Jacques-Coper, M., Loarte, E., Salzmann, N., Vuille, M., 2014.
Climate trends and glacier retreat in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, revisited. Glob.
Planet. Change 119, 85–97.
Schwarz, N., Schlink, U., Franck, U., Großmann, K., 2012. Relationship of land surface
and air temperatures and its implications for quantifying urban heat island in-
dicators-An application for the city of Leipzig (Germany). Ecol. Indic. 18, 693–704.
Sen, P.K., 1968. Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall’s tau. J. Am. Stat.
Assoc. 63, 1379–1389.
SENAMHI, 2011. Escenario de cambio climático en la Cuenca del río Mantaro para el año
2100, Lima, Perú.
Shen, S., Leptoukh, G.G., 2011. Estimation of surface air temperature over central and
eastern Eurasia from MODIS land surface temperature. Environ. Res. Lett. 6 (4),
045206.
Sicart, J.E., Hock, R., Six, D., 2008. Glacier melt, air temperature, and energy balance in
different climates: the Bolivian Tropics, the French Alps, and northern Sweden. J.
Geophys. Res. Atmos. 113, D24.
Sicart, J.E., Espinoza, J.C., Quéno, L., Medina, M., 2015. Radiative properties of clouds
over a tropical Bolivian glacier: seasonal variations and relationship with regional
atmospheric circulation. Int. J. Climatol. 36, 3116–3128.
Snyder, W.C., Wan, Z., 1998. BRDF models to predict spectral reflectance and emissivity
in the thermal infrared. Ieee Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens. 36 (1), 214–225.
Snyder, W.C., Wan, Z., Zhang, Y., Feng, Y.Z., 1998. Classification-based emissivity for
land surface temperature measurement from space. Int. J. Remote Sens. 19 (14),
2753–2774.
Solano, R., Didan, K., Jacobson, A., Huete, A., 2010. MODIS vegetation index user’s guide
(MOD13 series). Vegetation Index and Phenology Lab. The University of Arizona, pp.
1–38.
Ubeda, J., Estremera, D.P., 2013. El clima de la vertiente del Pacífico de los Andes cen-
trales y sus implicaciones geomorfológicas. Espacio y Desarrollo 20, 31–56.
van Leeuwen, T.T., Frank, A.J., Jin, Y., Smyth, P., Goulden, M.L., van der Werf, G.R.,
Randerson, J.T., 2011. Optimal use of land surface temperature data to detect
changes in tropical forest cover. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 116, G2.
Vancutsem, C., Ceccato, P., Dinku, T., Connor, S.J., 2010. Evaluation of MODIS land
surface temperature data to estimate air temperature in different ecosystems over
Africa. Remote Sens. Environ. 114 (2), 449–465.
Vermote, E.F., Vermeulen, A., 1999. Atmospheric correction algorithm: spectral re-
flectances (MOD09). ATBD version 4.
Vicente-Serrano, S.M., López‐Moreno, J.I., Correa, K., Avalos, G., Bazo, J., Azorin‐Molina,
C., Domínguez‐Castro, F., Kenawy, A.E., Gimeno, L., Nieto, R., 2018. Recent changes
in monthly surface air temperature over Peru, 1964–2014. Int. J. Climatol. 38 (1),
283–306.
Vuille, M., Bradley, R.S., 2000. Mean annual temperature trends and their vertical
structure in the tropical Andes. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 3885–3888.
Vuille, M., Bradley, R.S., Werner, M., Keimig, F., 2003. 20th century climate change in the
tropical Andes: observations and model results. Clim. Change 59 (1–2), 75–99.
Vuille, M., Francou, B., Wagnon, P., Juen, I., Kaser, G., Mark, B., Bradley, R., 2008.
Climate change and tropical Andean Glaciers: past, present and future. Earth-Science
Review 89, 79–96.
Vuille, M., Franquist, E., Garreaud, R., Lavado, W.S., Cáceres, B., 2015. Impact of the
global warming hiatus on Andean temperature. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 120,
2169–8996.
Vuille, M., Carey, M., Huggel, C., Buytaert, W., Rabatel, A., Jacobsen, D., Soruco, A.,
Villacish, M., Yarlequea, C., Timma, O.E., Condome, T., Salzmannc, N., Sicarte, J.E.,
2018. Rapid decline of snow and ice in the tropical Andes–Impacts, uncertainties and
challenges ahead. Earth. Rev.
Wan, Z., 2007. Collection-5 MODIS Land Surface Temperature Products Users’ Guide.
ICESS, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Wan, Z., 2008. New refinements and validation of the MODIS land-surface temperature/
emissivity products. Remote Sens. Environ. 112, 59–74.
Wan, Z., Dozier, J., 1996. A generalized Split-window algorithm for retrieving land-sur-
face temperature from space. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 34 (4), 892–905.
Wan, Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Q., Li, Z., 2002. Validation of the land surface temperature
products retrieved from Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data.
Remote Sens. Environ. 83, 163–180.
Wan, Z., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Q., Li, Z., 2004. Quality assessment and validation of the
MODIS global land surface temperature. Int. J. Remote Sens. 25, 261–274.
Williamson, S.N., Hik, D.S., Gamon, J.A., Kavanaugh, J.L., Flowers, G.E., 2014.
Estimating temperature fields from MODIS land surface temperature and air tem-
perature observations in a sub-arctic alpine environment. Remote Sens. 6 (2),
946–963.
Williamson, S.N., Hik, D.S., Gamon, J.A., Jarosch, A.H., Anslow, F.S., Clarke, G.K., Rupp,
T.S., 2017. Spring and summer monthly MODIS LST is inherently biased compared to
air temperature in snow covered sub-Arctic mountains. Remote Sens. Environ. 189,
14–24.
Xu, H., Lin, D., Tang, F., 2013. The impact of impervious surface development on land
surface temperature in a subtropical city: Xiamen, China. Int. J. Climatol. 33 (8),
1873–1883.
Xu, Y., Knudby, A., Ho, H.C., 2014. Estimating daily maximum air temperature from
MODIS in British Columbia, Canada. Int. J. Remote Sens. 35 (24), 8108–8121.
Xu, L., Li, B., Yuan, Y., Gao, X., Zhang, T., Sun, Q., 2016. Detecting different types of
directional land cover changes using MODIS NDVI time series dataset. Remote Sens. 8
(6), 495.
J. Aguilar-Lome et al.
Yang, Y.Z., Cai, W.H., Yang, J., 2017. Evaluation of MODIS land surface temperature data
to estimate near-surface air temperature in northeast China. Remote Sens. 9 (5), 410.
Yarleque, C., Vuille, M., Hardy, D.R., Timm, O.E., De la Cruz, J., Ramos, H., Rabatel, A.,
2018. Projections of the future disappearance of the quelccaya ice cap in the Central
Andes. Sci. Rep. 8 (1), 15564.
128
Int J Appl  Earth Obs Geoinformation 77 (2019) 119–128
Yu, P.S., Yang, T.C., Wu, C.K., 2002. Impact of climate change on water resources in
southern Taiwan. J. Hydrol. 260 (1), 161–175.
Zhang, H., Zhang, F., Zhang, G., He, X., Tian, L., 2016. Evaluation of cloud effects on air
temperature estimation using MODIS LST based on ground measurements over the
Tibetan Plateau. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 16 (21), 13681–13696.