Assessing Global and Regional Land Surface Skin Temperature Variations

该项目利用卫星观测分析地表特征变化的影响（例如，土地利用、积雪趋势和城市化）对地表温度变化的影响。 通常，全球温度是通过气象站的现场2米空气温度测量来评估的，这些气象站通常位于人类活动造成干扰的人口稠密地区，因此温度记录可能无法代表全球陆地表面。 利用卫星观测可以对过去25年左右的地表温度变化提供独立的全球估计。 该项目侧重于利用极地轨道卫星仪器进行的基于红外线的表面温度估计，并包括对卫星检索估计值进行交叉验证和校准。 PI已经做了大量的工作，以前开发的方法，将皮肤温度转换为近地表的空气温度，并在全球平均意义上应用。 该项目将已开发的方法扩展到区域和较小规模的趋势探测和归因的科学问题。 该项目的一个主要特点是努力将观测到的土地利用变化与观测到的温度趋势联系起来。 对不确定性的审查也是该计划的一部分。 这项活动将支持格鲁吉亚理工学院的一名研究生，并雇用美国大学的一名本科生。马里兰州每小时进行数据处理。 这对气候变化的评估和归因具有重大影响。

This project uses satellite observations to analyze the impact of changes in surface characteristics (e.g., land use, snow cover trends and urbanization) on surface temperature variations. Typically global temperature is assessed with in situ 2-meter air temperature measurements from weather stations, which are usually located in populated regions where human activity causes disturbances such that the temperature record may not be representative of the global land surface. The use of satellite observations can provide an independent global estimate of the surface temperature change over the last 25 years or so. This project focuses on infrared-based skin temperature estimates from polar-orbiting satellite instruments and includes cross-validation and calibration of the satellite retrieval estimates. The PIs have done much work previously developing methods to translate skin temperature to near-surface air temperature and have applied this in a global mean sense. This project extends the developed methodology to the scientific problem of trend detection and attribution on regional and smaller scales. A key feature of this project is the effort to connect observed land use changes to observable temperature trends. An examination of uncertainties is also part of the plan. This activity will support a graduate student at Georgia Tech and employ an undergraduate at U. Maryland on an hourly basis to perform data processing. There are strong implications for climate change assessment and attribution.