THERMAL AND SHORTWAVE INFRARED REMOTE SENSING OF ECOSYSTEM

PROCESSES: OPPORTUNITIES, SYNERGIES, AND CHALLENGES

2021 IEEE International India Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (InGARSS) | 978-1-6654-4249-7/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/InGARSS51564.2021.9791903

Kaniska Mallick1*, Tian Hu1*, Yun Bai2, Nishan Bhattarai3, Ivonne Trebs1, Martin Schlerf1, Gilles
Boulet4, Tianxin Wang5, Camilo Rey Sanchez5, Robert Shortt5, Dennis Baldocchi5
1
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belvaux, Luxembourg
2
Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China
3
Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maryland, USA
4
Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère, Toulouse, France
5
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley,
California, USA
*
Corresponding author (Email): kaniska.mallick@list.lu, tian.hu@list.lu
ABSTRACT evaporative cooling makes it an interesting variable for
studying different ecosystem processes. In water-scarce
Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the preeminent ecosystems, LST obtained through thermal infrared (TIR)
state variables that affects the ecosystem functioning and it remote sensing does not only provide direct information on
also gets modulated due to biotic and abiotic ecosystem the land surface moisture status and surface energy balance
processes. Understanding the factors controlling LST and the partitioning [1, 2], it sets the lower boundary conditions for
impacts of LST on the ecosystem water-carbon exchanges are the transfer of water and carbon fluxes in the soil-vegetation-
very often hindered due to (1) the effects of LST retrieval atmosphere continuum. Thus, it is a great diagnostic tool for
uncertainty and angular variation on different processes, (2) evapotranspiration (EET), photosynthesis (PN) and ecosystem
the lack of authentic physically-based models that link LST respiration assessment, without additional information on
with ecosystem physiological properties. Moreover, the hydrological and biogeochemical functions as commonly
synergy of LST and water-sensitive shortwave infrared required in process-based models.
(SWIR) bands in ecosystem modelling is absent until now, The plant physiological processes that drive transpiration
which could enhance the application of LST. The planned (ET) and photosynthesis have a non-linear relationship with
Indo-French polar-orbiting mission TRISHNA (Thermal LST. In the water-scarce ecosystems and during drought,
infraRed Imaging Satellite for High-Resolution Natural such non-linearity is more profound due to the strong control
resource Assessment) with its unprecedented spatial of stomatal and aerodynamic conductances (gC and gA) on ET
resolution and temporal revisit (57 m and 3 days noon-night and PN. While the state-of-the-art surface energy balance
observation capacity), 6 VSWIR and 4 TIR Bands in 8 – 12 (SEB) models for estimating EET suffers due to the lack of a
m, will bring new insights to overcome these challenges. universally agreed gA and due to bypassing the role of LST
The optical-thermal observations will be used to attain LST, on gC; there is also no LST-based ET-PN coupled model until
emissivity and surface reflectance with high accuracy and now. In addition, the directionality of LST retrieval at the
precision, underlying future scientific breakthroughs in satellite pixel scale and its impacts on ecological processes,
understanding the energy-water-carbon exchange process. inequality of LST and aerodynamic temperature (T 0) and
This paper briefly describes an overview of challenges in their non-unique relationship makes the full exploitation of
estimation of LST, role of thermal directionality and two of TIR data a challenging task. This paper briefly describes an
the most important ecosystem processes (evaporation and overview of challenges in LST estimating, its directionality
photosynthesis). The utility of SWIR reflectance in tandem and two of the most important ecosystem processes (E T and
with LST as a ‘signal of opportunity’ is also described. PN). The utility of using shortwave infrared (SWIR)
reflectance to use with LST ‘in synergy’ and as a ‘signal of
Index Terms— TIR, VSWIR, LST, directionality, opportunity’ to complement LST is also described.
transpiration, GPP, water stress, ecosystem processes
2. LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE RETRIEVAL
1. INTRODUCTION
LST is closely linked with surface energy balance, surface
The impact of land surface drying and climate warming on hydrological cycle and eco-physiological processes [3].
global ecology is reflected due to the pervasive control of Retrieving LST from satellite observations with high
land surface temperature (LST) on the ecosystem processes. accuracy is a challenging task mainly due to 1) the ill-posed
The sensitivity of LST to surface water variability and inversion problem caused by fewer observations (N) than

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unknowns (spectral emissivity and LST, N+1), 2) coupling
between LST and emissivity and uncertainties in emissivity
estimates, and 3) residuals from atmospheric correction.
Different algorithms have been developed to tackle these
challenges, including the single-channel (SC) algorithm
(Landsat) [4], split-window (SW) algorithm (MODIS and
SEVERI) [5], and the temperature and emissivity separation
(TES) algorithm (MODIS and ASTER) [6]. Moreover, global
emissivity dataset (e.g. ASTER GED) is used to improve the
emissivity retrieval in SC and SW. The water vapor scaling
(WVS) method is applied in TES to improve the atmospheric
correction [7]. Empowered by the development of LST
estimation algorithms and the new generation thermal
missions, including ECOSTRESS launched in 2018 (Figure
1), LSTM, TRISHNA and SBG to be launched around 2025,
high spatio-temporal LST with spatial resolution <60 m and
1–5-day revisit time can be attained. Combined with LST
diurnal cycle obtained from the new generation operational
geostationary satellites, e.g. Himawari-8 and the GOES-R
series, unprecedented opportunities can be foreseen for
agricultural and ecological studies.
(a) TES LST (b) SW LST
Figure 1. LST retrieval for an ECOSTRESS image over
African desert during summer using (a) TES and (b) SW
algorithm from the European ECOSTRESS Hub (EEH).
3. THERMAL DIRECTIONALITY
Thermal directionality is attributed to several such as soil
properties, vegetation structure, topography and mixed
targets [8]. Emissivity directionality and LST angular
variation are entailed in thermal directionality. Emissivity
generally decreases from nadir to oblique viewing and has
minor azimuthal variation. Hu, et al. [9] extracted the
directional emissivity for different land surface types from
the MYD21 product and reported that the angular variation
of directional emissivity in MODIS band 29 (~ 8.55 μm) was
pronounced (up to 0.03) but negligible in bands 31 and 32 (~
11 and 12 μm). The extracted directional emissivity was
subsequently used in retrieving surface upwelling longwave
radiation (SULR) [9] and LST [5]. The angular variation in
satellite LST retrievals can reach ~9 K or more, depending on
surface and climate conditions. Different kernel-driven
models have been proposed to reproduce LST angular
variation, including the RL model, Vinnikov model and
Kernel-Hotspot model [10]. The development of these
parametric models provides opportunities to correct for LST
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directionality in SULR estimation (Figure 2) and surface
energy balance modelling.
(a) Ses (b) UMB
Figure 2. Difference between SULR estimates using
directional LST and via hemispherical integration for the
daytime during summer at core sites (a) Ses and (b) UMB in
the Ameriflux network, simulated from the Kernel-Hotspot
model using the MYD21 LST.
4. PLANT WATER USE AND ECOPHYSIOLOGY
The magnitude and variability of transpiration (ET) depends
on the ecophysiological responses of the canopy stomatal
conductance (gC) to soil water content, vapor pressure deficit
(DA), aerodynamic conductance (gA), and climate forcings.
The sensitivity of LST to soil-vegetation water content
variations makes it one of the pivotal variables to constrain
gC and for spatio-temporal mapping of ET. However, until
now there is no universally agreed authentic physical model
for mapping ET using thermal remote sensing and there is no
available ET product for assessing plant water use strategies
during drought. The two-source energy balance (TSEB)
model ALEXI [11] gives the perspective for spatially explicit
ET mapping, but the absence of any explicit eco-physiological
control in TSEB limits its applicability for routine ET
monitoring. A relatively new non-parametric SEB model
called Surface Temperature Initiated Closure (STIC) [2, 3]
demonstrated direct estimation of gC and a top-down
decomposition technique for partitioning lumped EET for
estimating ET based on an aggregated surface moisture
availability (M) (Figure 3).
EET = EE + ET = MEE∗ + (1 − M)ET∗ (1)
The estimation assumes that ‘wet surface evaporates’
and ‘dry surface transpires’. During rain or dew, the land
surface becomes wet and EET tends to approach the potential
evaporation ( EE∗ ), while surface drying after rainfall/dew
causes EET to approach the potential transpiration rate (ET∗ ) in
the presence of vegetation, or zero without any vegetation.
Hence, EET at any time is a mixture of these two end member
conditions depending on the degree of M [12]. STIC
estimates M through physical linking with LST. The
estimates of EE in STIC consist of aggregated contribution
from both ‘interception’ and ‘soil evaporation’, and no
further attempt is made to separate these two components.
With the availability of high spatial resolution LST and
 VSWIR data, explicit
E (W m )
estimation of partitioned evaporation -2 Realizing the role of LST in GPP-ET coupling, some of
T
components is possible. the recent work focused on enhancing the ecosystem ET and

100

200
0
GPP estimate using TIR remote sensing [15] and a model
0

(a) d vs. ET

200 200
(a) d vs. ET 200 (b) RG vs. ET
named RCEEP. The key equation of RCEEP is presented as

DA>=10 & RG>300 & L>0.1

DA<10 & RG>300 & L>0.1
d: 0 - 15
 : 15 - 30
100
follows.
d
ET (W m )

ET (W m )
-2

 :>30

-2
d(m3 m-3)

d
0
0 25 50
25

100 100
1+s
1.3EVI fT EET (2)
GPP = (uWUE√b)√ s
0 0
Pa EETmax
0 25 50 0 200 400 600 800 1000
50

d(m3 m-3) RG(W m-2)

where uWUE is the underlying water use efficiency referring
100 500
to Zhou, et al. [13], and uWUE√𝑏 is treated as a single
1000 4
(c)
quantity (μmolC mol H2O-1 kPa0.5), the values of which for
E and ET (W m )
-2

400 800
typical plant functional types (PFT) are referred to Bai, et al.

RG (W m )
d (m3 m-3)

-2
300 600 [15]; EVI denotes the remote sensing-based enhanced

50
200
100
0 0
40
8-day period from 2002 to 2006
Figure 3. Examples of the scatterplot between (a) retrieved
transpiration (λET) versus measured root zone soil moisture
(d) over semi-arid savanna for two different combinations
of vapor pressure deficit (DA), shortwave radiation (RG) and
leaf area index (L). The figure in the inset shows good
correspondence between λET and d when DA is above 10
hPa, (b) λET versus RG for different levels of d, (c) the
temporal dynamics of λET (blue line) along with the
observed λE (black line), RG (green line), MODIS leaf area
index (L) (thick red line) and d (thick grey line) over Tonzi
Ranch in California. This shows that λET has a direct
response to RG, but λET does not respond immediately with
increase in d unless DA rises above some level [2].
5. ECOSYSTEM METABOLISM AND GPP
Quantifying water status of ecosystem is the key to
reasonably estimate gross primary productivity (GPP) under
dry climates. Some recent studies used a multi-layer soil
water balance module to constrain stomatal conductance in
estimating GPP [13] and found improvements in GPP
estimates (Figure 4) for most plant functional types under dry
conditions over Europe.
Figure 4. Estimated daily GPP vs. flux site GPP across 41
flux sites over Europe. The original figure was referred to
Zhang, et al. [14].
L
2
400 vegetation index; Pa is the atmosphere pressure (kPa); fT is the
200 fraction of transpiration in EET; EETmax is the observed
0
maximum value of EET and is fixed to 6.8 x10-3 mol m-2 s-1
0
80 120 160 200
(~300 W m-2); s is an empirical parameter (0.31). RCEEP
provides an effective approach to estimate ET from GPP with
a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.71 in estimating daily GPP
from ET, which is substantially higher than the original
uWUE method. Therefore, we can use RCEEP to reasonably
quantify regional or global-scale GPP by using TIR data in
conjunction with ET models.
6. TIR-SWIR SYNERGY AND COMPLEMENTARITY
High spatial resolution LST from Landsat-8 (L8) helps in
determining vegetation water use and stress at the field scale.
However, the coarse temporal resolution of L8 (16-day revisit
at the equator) limit its use for routine monitoring. Although
good quality daily LST is available from Sentinel-3 (S3),
VIIRS, and MODIS, their coarse spatial resolution (750 m -
1 km) prohibits applications at the field scale. However,
TRISHNA with 6 spectral channels in the visible/near
infrared (VNIR) and shortwave infrared (VSWIR) domains
has high spatial and temporal resolution (20 m; 3 days). The
water sensitive information contained in the SWIR band
(1610 nm) tends to have immense potential for routine
mapping of water use and stress when high spatio-temporal
resolution LST observations are not available. Given the NIR
spectral region serves as the moisture reference band and
surface reflectance decreases with increasing moisture
content in the SWIR region, combining NIR and SWIR
reflectance is expected to give the ‘signal of freedom’ to
measure the liquid water in the vegetation-soil system [16].
A recent study demonstrated the integration of a SWIR-based
multiband water stress index (ISWIR) into an analytical surface
energy balance (SEB) model [17] for simultaneous
estimation of LST, EET, and SET. The model is called
SolSTICE (Shortwave Surface Temperature Initiated
ClosurE), where the existing SEB model, STIC, was
modified to ingest SWIR-based water stress information in
conjunction with meteorological variables for retrieving LST,
EET, and SET, and associated conductances (Figure 5).
Implementing SolSTICE with TRISHNA TIR and
VSWIR radiance will clearly bring new insights on

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complementing field scale LST, EET, and SET estimation
without the need of any thermal disaggregation.
Figure 5. Illustrative examples modeled versus observed
latent heat flux (LE) and comparison between retrieved
LST versus MODIS Terra LST using SolSTICE model.
7. CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
While the challenges in ‘synergistic’ use of VSWIR and TIR
information together in EET and PN models primarily concerns
the identification of the transition from surface to root zone
soil water stress, ‘complementing’ TIR with VSWIR is also
challenging with respect to identifying the appropriate
spectral combination which has meaningful relationship with
evaporation partitioning components and diversity of
responses in vegetation water use. TRISHNA with co-located
and simultaneous measurements of surface properties via
optical channels is expected to constrain the important
ecosystem processes using the synergy and complementarity
of TIR and VSWIR. Furthermore, data missing under cloudy
sky hinders the modelling of ecosystem processes, where
microwave-driven SEB modelling or cloud-gap filling could
provide a solution.
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