Urban surface emission longwave radiation estimation from high spatial resolution image using a hybrid method

Accurate estimation of the surface emission longwave radiation (SELR) has important scientific significance for understanding its spatiotemporal dynamics and surface thermal environment. High spatial resolution thermal infrared images provide better data support for studying SELR of complex surfaces such as urban surface. This paper focus on proposing a new urban- oriented hybrid method to estimate urban surface emission longwave radiation from top-of-atmosphere thermal radiance images, by taking the GF-5/VIMI thermal image as an example, and conduct the parameter sensitive analysis of the model as well as application over Beijing city. The experimental results of the simulation dataset showed that the developed method has relatively high precision, with SELR errors of less than 12.0 W/m2 under low water vapor conditions and less than 17.0 W/m2 under high water vapor conditions. The application of method in GF- 5 image also demonstrated the rationality and effectiveness of the method.