The Innovation Team of Agricultural Remote Sensing of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) systematically summarized the main progress and bottlenecks in the development and application of surface temperature remote sensing products, and pointed out the future development direction. The relevant research results were published in Reviews of Geophysics.

Surface temperature is an essential parameter for studying material and energy exchanges between the surface and the atmosphere and climate change. It is listed as a priority parameter by the International Geosphere and Biosphere Programme (IGBP), and is used by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) as one of the 54 essential climate variables (ECV).

In light of the continuous emergence of surface temperature remote sensing products in recent years, this study gives a comprehensive and systematic review of aspects of the definition of surface temperature, inversion methods, verification methods, mainstream products and product applications. Focusing on key algorithms for the research and development of surface temperature remote sensing products, the parameter characteristics of mainstream products, product accuracy differences, main problems and typical applications, a detailed introduction is given, and the research prospects for the development and application of future surface temperature standardization products are put forward.

Through the comparative analysis of existing mainstream products, this paper highlights the differences among the products in detail, and elaborates on the key problems existing in these products, such as discontinuous space, incomparable time and space, and short time span.

This study not only helps thermal infrared remote sensing professionals understand the latest developments in surface temperature remote sensing inversion and verification methods, but also the problems faced by surface temperature remote sensing products and possible solutions. It also facilitates product users to understand the grades of mainstream surface temperature products, data sources, uncertainties and typical applications.

The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Innovation Research Group Project, the Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other projects.

Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022RG000777