Phase 2B: Land surface Temperature comparison (Gobabeb, Namibia)

There are currently several systems and instruments which provide state of the art ground based validation measurements for obtaining in-situ Land Surface Temperature (LST). However, until recently – neither the instruments nor their field deployment have been compared and there were no established standards to ensure SI-traceability. Thus it was intended to complement the laboratory comparison experiments (LCE) in this project with field inter-comparison experiments (FICE).

The overarching objective of the TIR FRM Field Inter-comparison Experiments (FICE) was “to coordinate and demonstrate field inter-comparison activities for TIR FRM”. Inter-comparison experiments in the field cannot be controlled to the same extent as in the laboratory: therefore, selecting naturally homogenous sites is of key importance.

To evaluate measurements of LST, a field comparison campaign took place (2017) on the Namib gravel plains and sand sea at the Gobabeb research centre. The LST campaign spanned a two week period (14 -27 June) with the following participating labs:

• KIT
• GOTA – Universidad de La Laguna
• ONERA
• THEMACS Ingénierie
• Universidad de Valencia
• University of Southampton

Report from the Field Inter-Comparison Experiment (FICE) for Land Surface Temperature by Frank-M. Göttsche, Folke Olesen, Laurent Poutier, Stéphane Langlois, Werenfrid Wimmer, Vicente Garcia Santos, César Coll, Raquel Niclos, Manuel Arbelo and Jean-Pierre Monchau is available here and also over on our Project Documents page. For further information, please read the Implementation plan for the FRM4STS LST FICE (FICE-IP) by Folke Olesen & Frank Göttsche.