Landsat Thermal Validation

Developed by the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Landsat Thermal Validation platform provides near real-time validation of the Thermal Infrared Sensors (TIRS) onboard Landsat-8 and Landsat-9. The primary goal is to include a comprehensive validation for the suite of Landsat thermal sensor and facilitate open access to the data for end users.

• NOAA Buoy Network: The reference data is sourced from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) buoy network, which operates across several near-shore and inland water sites in CONUS (Continental United States). Water remains an ideal target for monitoring the long-term performance of TIRS due to its spectrally stable and well-defined emissivity. These instrumented buoys provide water bulk temperature measurements and wind speed, which enables an adjustment to water surface temperature, or “skin temperature” based on the methodology developed by Padula (2008) .
• Forward Modeling: The validation methodology employs a traditional forward-modeling workflow developed by the Landsat Calibration & Validation Team at RIT. This workflow models at-sensor spectral radiance for each TIRS band from the reference water surface measurements. The atmosphere is modeled using the MODTRAN radiative transfer model, which incorporates atmospheric profiles from GEOS-5 reanalysis product produced by the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO).
• Surface Temperature Validation: The website also compares the derived Level 2 surface temperature product, calculated using both the split window and single channel algorithms, against reference water surface measurements.