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 station based 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.