Monitoring of Summer High Temperature Disaster of Rice by Using MODIS Data

High temperature plays a critical impact on rice yield during heading stage of rice in summer in south China and thermal remote sensing is capable of estimating air temperature under cloudless condition. This paper first introduces a newly statistical algorithm for daytime air temperature (Ta) retrievals over east China by using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data in 2006. Error analysis for Aqua MODIS Ta retrievals shows overall statistics of R = 0.94, RMSE = 3.52 °C, and Bias = -0.4°C. Further monitoring of summer high temperature by using Aqua Ta in south China in 2007 reveals a serious high temperature disaster of rice, which is consistent with the field observation.