A sensitivity study of land surface temperature to soil moisture using in-situ and spaceborne observations

Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) affects the soil surface energy balance and thus affects the Land Surface Temperature (LST), and viceversa. Currently, LST and SSM are remotely sensed using TIR sensors and L-band radiometers, respectively. The NASA´s Terra/Aqua missions provide full coverage of LST measurements under clear sky conditions using MODIS. The ESA´s SMOS mission is the first satellite providing frequent SSM and ocean salinity observations at global scale. In this paper, a sensitivity study about the relationship of the LST and SSM is performed using in-situ measurements from the REMEDHUS network and spaceborne observations from MODIS and SMOS. Results show that the correlation between SSM and LST (both in-situ and remotely sensed) is highest using the daily maximum LST. This could help improving SSM algorithms and deriving new SSM products at higher resolution from the synergy of microwave and TIR observations.