Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions

Soil heat flux (SHF) is the rate of heat transfer between the Earth’s surface and the underlying soil which affects important processes, such as evapotranspiration and climate changes. Accurate estimation of SHF is therefore very important. This research models SHF images with hourly sequence in Yaz...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fahime Arabi Aliabad, Ebrahim Ghaderpour
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-05-01
Series:Ecological Informatics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954125000147
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850078913400668160
author Fahime Arabi Aliabad
Ebrahim Ghaderpour
author_facet Fahime Arabi Aliabad
Ebrahim Ghaderpour
author_sort Fahime Arabi Aliabad
collection DOAJ
description Soil heat flux (SHF) is the rate of heat transfer between the Earth’s surface and the underlying soil which affects important processes, such as evapotranspiration and climate changes. Accurate estimation of SHF is therefore very important. This research models SHF images with hourly sequence in Yazd–Ardakan plain, an arid region in central part of Iran, employing moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) products from 2014 to 2021, such as land surface temperature, emissivity, albedo and normalized difference vegetation index. Two methods are utilized to estimate SHF hourly. The first method (M1) is based on thermal inertia, calculated through the albedo image and the temperature of the Earth’s surface. In M1, SHF is estimated using the range of land surface temperature, thermal inertia and applying the harmonic relationship. The second method (M2) is based on modeling the daily SHF cycle using four MODIS-SHF images, calculated by the energy balance equation. In M2, the average and range of SHF in each day are calculated using four available images of SHF for each day, considering day length, time of sunrise, sunset and local noon. The results show that the root mean square error in M1 is 12.48 W/m2 while in M2 is 7.61 W/m2. The mean absolute deviation for M1 and M2 are estimated as 15.61 W/m2 and 5.42 W/m2, respectively. Cross-validation results demonstrates that M2 has higher accuracy in modeling the daily cycle of SHF. The results also show that the pattern of changes in SHF during the day and night in one-year time series is completely opposite of each other. The SHF during the day has varied from 64 to 98 W/m2 and at night from 0 to 64 W/m2. Plain lands have shown the highest SHF during the day compared to other land covers throughout the year. In the summer season, residential, agriculture, sand dune, mountain, plain, and bare lands respectively have the lowest to the highest SHF. Examining the changes in SHF in different land covers in one-year time series at nighttime indicates that SHF is higher in mountain throughout the year and lower in residential areas.
format Article
id doaj-art-3f8eafce152d4eaab5b089ca55801692
institution DOAJ
issn 1574-9541
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Ecological Informatics
spelling doaj-art-3f8eafce152d4eaab5b089ca558016922025-08-20T02:45:24ZengElsevierEcological Informatics1574-95412025-05-018610300510.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103005Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regionsFahime Arabi Aliabad0Ebrahim Ghaderpour1Department of Remote Sensing, Yazd University, University Blvd., Safayieh, Yazd, 8915818411, IranDepartment of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro, 5, Rome, 00185, Italy; Corresponding author.Soil heat flux (SHF) is the rate of heat transfer between the Earth’s surface and the underlying soil which affects important processes, such as evapotranspiration and climate changes. Accurate estimation of SHF is therefore very important. This research models SHF images with hourly sequence in Yazd–Ardakan plain, an arid region in central part of Iran, employing moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) products from 2014 to 2021, such as land surface temperature, emissivity, albedo and normalized difference vegetation index. Two methods are utilized to estimate SHF hourly. The first method (M1) is based on thermal inertia, calculated through the albedo image and the temperature of the Earth’s surface. In M1, SHF is estimated using the range of land surface temperature, thermal inertia and applying the harmonic relationship. The second method (M2) is based on modeling the daily SHF cycle using four MODIS-SHF images, calculated by the energy balance equation. In M2, the average and range of SHF in each day are calculated using four available images of SHF for each day, considering day length, time of sunrise, sunset and local noon. The results show that the root mean square error in M1 is 12.48 W/m2 while in M2 is 7.61 W/m2. The mean absolute deviation for M1 and M2 are estimated as 15.61 W/m2 and 5.42 W/m2, respectively. Cross-validation results demonstrates that M2 has higher accuracy in modeling the daily cycle of SHF. The results also show that the pattern of changes in SHF during the day and night in one-year time series is completely opposite of each other. The SHF during the day has varied from 64 to 98 W/m2 and at night from 0 to 64 W/m2. Plain lands have shown the highest SHF during the day compared to other land covers throughout the year. In the summer season, residential, agriculture, sand dune, mountain, plain, and bare lands respectively have the lowest to the highest SHF. Examining the changes in SHF in different land covers in one-year time series at nighttime indicates that SHF is higher in mountain throughout the year and lower in residential areas.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954125000147Arid regionLand cover/useLand surface temperatureMODISSoil heat fluxThermal remote sensing
spellingShingle Fahime Arabi Aliabad
Ebrahim Ghaderpour
Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
Ecological Informatics
Arid region
Land cover/use
Land surface temperature
MODIS
Soil heat flux
Thermal remote sensing
title Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
title_full Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
title_fullStr Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
title_full_unstemmed Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
title_short Modeling soil heat flux from MODIS products for arid regions
title_sort modeling soil heat flux from modis products for arid regions
topic Arid region
Land cover/use
Land surface temperature
MODIS
Soil heat flux
Thermal remote sensing
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954125000147
work_keys_str_mv AT fahimearabialiabad modelingsoilheatfluxfrommodisproductsforaridregions
AT ebrahimghaderpour modelingsoilheatfluxfrommodisproductsforaridregions