ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessing MODIS Land Surface Temperature
(LST) Over Jeddah
Mazen Ebraheem Assiri
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Department of Meteorology, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment,
and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Submission date: 2016-10-18
Final revision date: 2016-12-01
Acceptance date: 2017-02-13
Online publication date: 2017-07-21
Publication date: 2017-07-25
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(4):1461-1470
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ABSTRACT
Surface temperature is an important parameter for environmental as well as climate studies. Weather
stations, however, provide limited information about heterogeneous spatial patterns of temperatures over
wide areas, and satellite remote sensing is therefore a viable solution. The current study is designed to
assess the land surface temperature (LST) as estimated by a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer
(MODIS) onboard both the Terra and Aqua satellite systems from 2000 to 2014 over Jeddah. Station data
from Jeddah airport was retrieved for the study period and statistical analysis was performed. The results
of the study show that the correlation coefficient between MODIS day (night) time LST and stationbased
maximum (minimum) temperature is 0.40 (0.93) for Aqua and 0.52 (0.85) for Terra. Overall, the
satellite-based minimum LST estimation is much better than maximum LST estimation. The results are
further analyzed with respect to population trends and urban growth development in Jeddah. I concluded
that satellite-based LST (MODIS Aqua and Terra) has great potential to represent ground station data over
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.