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Surface temperature correction in TVDI to evaluate soil moisture over a large area
Hongjun Li 1, Chunqiang Li 2, Yong Lin 3 and Yuping Lei 1*
1
Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050021, P. R. China. 2 Meteorological Institute of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, 050021, P. R.
China. 3 National Marine Environment Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Dalian, 116023, P. R. China.
*e-mail: leiyp@sjziam.ac.cn, lhj@sjziam.ac.cn
Received 7 July 2010, accepted 24 October 2010.
Abstract
The Temperature-Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI), based on an empirical relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation index
(VI), has been widely used in large area drought monitoring. Temporal and spatial variations of LST and VI (NDVI) over a large area in southern Hebei
Plain of China that covers five degrees North latitude are analyzed in this paper. We show that there were significant changes in crop phenological
stages and VI in different latitudes giving rise to a parabolic relationship between LST and latitude. The lower LST in the northern area caused by lower
air temperature leads to some errors in the use of TVDI. After removal of the influence of lower air temperature on LST, the accuracy of soil moisture
monitoring by TVDI is improved compared with observations of soil moisture.
Key words: TVDI, latitude, land surface temperature, air temperature, drought monitoring.
Introduction
As the trend in global warming becomes increasingly obvious,
more and more areas are becoming drought prone due to the
threat posed by a water crisis 1. The increases of area of arid
region and economic loss caused by drought emphasize the
importance of strengthening regional drought monitoring and
forecasting techniques. Traditional drought monitoring methods
use ground-based soil sampling to measure soil moisture in a
limited area, and for larger areas use interpolation methods with
limited sampling data 2. However, due to the spatial variability
of large area, it is very hard, or even impossible, to get complete
information about soil moisture for a large region using groundsampling methods 3.
In recent decades, the rapid development of remote sensing
technology has shown promising results in regional drought
monitoring 4, 5. Many drought monitoring models using a variety
of remote sensing data have been put forward 6-9. Using some
surface parameters retrieved from remote sensing data, such as
vegetation index (VI) and land surface temperature (LST), some
indices were calculated to describe regional drought 7. The
Temperature-Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) presented by
Sandholt 10 is one model that is simple to calculate and easy to
apply.
One of the advantages of drought monitoring using remote
sensing is that it can cover a large area. However, the surface
conditions, such as terrain and altitude, vary with a change in
latitude and that introduces errors into the TVDI results. Taking
into account the cooling effect on LST caused by an increase in
altitude, Ran 11 corrected the TVDI method using a digital
elevation model (DEM), which improved the accuracy of drought
monitoring. When the latitude span of the monitored area is large,
errors in drought monitoring using the TVDI method can be
reduced by dividing the area into partitions 12 or sub-bands 13.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.8 (3&4), July-October 2010
(1)
Tmax = a2 + b2 * VI
(2)
1141
Wet side(Tmin)TVDI=0
Partial cover
VI
LST
(VI,LST)
Bare soil
Full cover
NDVI =
where a1, b1, and a2, b2 are fitting coefficients of the dry side and
wet side, respectively. The dry side is the most arid region of the
monitoring area. Generally, the TVDI value of the dry side is set to
be 1, while that of the wet side (being the most humid region) is
set to be 0. Hence, TVDI at any point in this feature space can be
expressed as follows:
T - Tmin
TVDI =
Tmax - Tmin
(3)
T a i h a n g
China
2 1
2 + 1
(4)
where 1 and 2 are the reflectivity of the first and second channel
of NOAA data. LST is calculated using equations 16 as follows:
T = T4+[1.29 + 0.28 (45)](45) + 45(14) 40
(5)
4 = 0.9897 + 0.029ln(NDVI)
(6)
= 0.01019 + 0.01344ln(NDVI)
(7)
LST
36
37
38
39
36
37
38
39
2008-3-7
Latitude
008-3-7
Latitude
308
306
304
302
300
298
LST
36
37
38
39
36
37
38
39
2008-3-26
Latitude
2008-326 Latitude
304
302
300
298
296
294
LST
36
37
36
37
2008-5-04
2008-5-04
38
38
Latitude
Latitude
39
39
0.25
0.25
0.20
0.20
0.15
0.15
0.10
0.10
0.05
0.05
0.00
0.00
40
40
0.50
0.50
0.40
0.40
0.30
0.30
0.20
0.20
0.10
0.10
0.00
0.00
40
40
36
37
36
37
2008-3-15
2008-3-15
0.30
0.30
310
0.20
0.20
305
0.10
0.10
36
37
2008-5-28
38
39
39
39
36
37
38
39
36
37
38
39
2008-4-28
2008-428 Latitude
Latitude
310
310
315
300
306
306
304
304
302
302
300
300
298
298
296
296
38
38
Latitude
Latitude
40
40
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
40
40
NDVI
NDVI
NDVI
LST
LST
40
40
NDVI
298
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0.40
305
305
300
300
295
295
290
290
36
37
36
37
2008-5-18
2008-5-18
NDVI
299
306
306
304
304
302
302
300
300
298
298
296
296
NDVI
NDVI
LST
LST
300
0.10
0.10
0.08
0.08
0.06
0.06
0.04
0.04
0.02
0.02
0.00
0.00
NDVI
NDVI
LST
LST
LST
301
NDVI
NDVI
302
38
38
Latitude
Latitude
LST
LST
39
39
NDVI
NDVI
0.00
0 00
40
Latitude
Equations
R2
3-7
3-15
3-26
4-28
5-4
5-18
5-28
0.6586
0.8139
0.2396
0.4264
0.7911
0.5456
0.585
Latitude of
turning point
37.94
38.53
38.08
38.94
38.33
38.33
38.21
LST
L < 37.94
(8)
L 37.94
1143
285
11
290
290
285
285
280
280
275
275
270
270
285
285
Ta
T
a
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
LST
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
Ta
280
R2 = 0.1817
2
0.0
25
50
75
0-10 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
0.0
0.0
100
R22= 0.1203
R = 0.12
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
y = -0.0055x
+ 0.9363
y = -0.0055x
+ 0.93
R = 0.1817
R = 0.2139
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
y =-0.0067x
-0.0067x++0.9818
0.9818 1.0
y=
1.0
1.0
1.0
R2 = 0.2139
2
TVDI
TVDI
y = -0.0069x
-0.0069x++0.9488
0.9488
1.0
25
50
75
0.0
0.0
100
40
60
80
100
40-50 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
R = 0.2896
0.5
1.0
1.0
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
R = 0.2896
2
0.0
25
50
75
0-10 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
100
y = -0.0061x
+ 0.9343 1.0
y = -0.0061x
+ 0.9343
1.0
R2 =2 0.2255
0.5
0.5
0 0.0
0 25
y = -0.0046x
+ 0.8619
y = -0.0046x
+ 0.8619
2
R = 0.2255
2R
= 0.1227
R = 0.1227
TVDI
TVDI
y =-0.0066x
-0.0066x++ 0.9193
0.9193
y=
2
1.0
0.5
0.5
50
75
10-20 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
100
0 0.0
0 40
60
80
100
40-50 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
R = 0.221
0.5
0.0
25
50
75
0-10 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
y = -0.0061x + 0.9442
1.01.0
R = 0.1537
0.50.5
0.00.0
100
25
50
75
y = -0.0053x + 0.9238
1.0
1.0
y = -0.006x
0.9442
R2 =+0.1537
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
y = -0.0064x + 0.9208
y = -0.0064x
+ 0.9208
R2 = 0.221
1.0
100
y = -0.0053xR+2 =0.9236
0.095
2
R = 0.095
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
40
60
80
100
40-50 cm Soil relative
humidity (%)
R = 0.3142
0.5
0.0
25
50
75
y = -0.0061x + 0.934
1.0
1.0
y = -0.0061x
+ 0.934
R2 = 0.2313
2
100
R = 0.2313
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
25
50
75
y = -0.0044x + 0.8473
1.0
1.0
y = -0.0044x R
+2 0.8473
= 0.0931
2
TVDI
TVDI
y = -0.0063x + 0.9007
y = -0.0063x
+ 0.9007
R2 = 0.3142
TVDI
TVDI
TVDI
1.0
100
R = 0.0931
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
40
60
80
100
Figure 9. Comparison of temperature-adjusted TVDI and soil relative moisture north to N37.94.
Conclusions
Based on a simple calculation method, without the assistance of
ground-based observations, TVDI has been widely used in
regional drought monitoring, especially in large areas. However,
the variations in climate across large-scale regions introduce
errors in the drought monitoring results obtained by the TVDI
method. Spatial and temporal variations of NDVI and LST in
different latitudes were analyzed in this paper. LST was affected
by the crop phenological stages and was affected by the crop
phenological stages and had a parabolic relationship with latitude.
The change of LST was partly caused by a decline of air
temperature. Corrections were applied to the LST calculation in
the northern region by developing an equation between LST and
latitude using the linear fitting method. This increased the
accuracy of drought monitoring results using the TVDI method.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the financial support of
Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences
(KZCX2-YW-449) program and National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 40971025).
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Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.8 (3&4), July-October 2010
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