DISCRIMINATING DESERT PAVEMENTS, CRUSTS, AND OTHER MORPHO-CLIMATIC SURFACES WITH MULTI-TEMPORAL THERMAL AND VISIBLE TO NEAR-INFRARED REMOTE SENSING OBSERVATIONS

With the use of remote sensing instruments, diurnal temperature responses can easily be studied and used to identify surficial properties affecting global processes. Naturally occurring soil crusts, desert pavements and hard surfaces are common in arid environments. However their thermal responses to changing climate are not fully understood. The main objective of this project is to recognize and classify thermo-physical interactions between the lithologic composition, surface texture and geomorphology in desert pavements, soil crusts, and bedrock quantitatively and qualitatively. Land surface diurnal temperature (LST) variations are fundamental thermo-physical observations that have implications for major hydrological, geomorphic and climatic processes. In hypothesis, if desert pavement, crusts, and bedrock surfaces each behave as individual ‘units’, they should each display distinct thermophysical responses that can be measured and compared quantitatively and mapped out at a regional scale. To display this thermophysical distinction, three thermal difference maps will be created using Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Thermal Infrared (TIR) imagery data at 15-90-meter spatial resolution, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery data at a 1,000-meter spatial resolution in TIR and in-situ radiometer temperature data from visible to thermal infrared to effectively model the thermal influences that land-surface characteristics may have on regional microclimates.