Using the MODIS Land Surface Temperature Product for Mapping Permafrost: An Application to Northern Quebec and Labrador, Canada

The Land Surface Temperature (LST) products of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites were used to develop maps of annual near-surface temperatures for comparison with the spatial distribution of permafrost and boundaries of the permafrost zones. The methodological approach involved fitting a sinusoidal model over the daily LST readings to reproduce seasonal thermal variations near the ground for each 1-km(2) pixel. Calculations of mean annual surface temperatures and of thawing and freezing indices led to the development of regional maps, in this case for northern Quebec and Labrador. The maps show the expected geographic distribution of near-surface temperatures and acceptably represent known permafrost boundaries. Ongoing efforts to incorporate snow and vegetation cover from complementary remotely sensed data should improve the ground surface temperature mapping capability based on this approach. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.