ESTIMATION OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE-VEGETATION ABUNDANCE RELATIONSHIP USING LANDSAT TM 5 DATA

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important factor for range of issue such as global climate change, desertification, deforestation, land cover assessment, energy balance estimations ,environmental studies and change in agricultural pattern .Vegetation abundance is one of the most influential factors in controlling LST measures through partitioning of solar radiation into fluxes of sensible and latent heat and by limiting the proportions of vegetation and ground .In the study, an attempt has been made to estimate surface temperature using Landsat TM satellite data. Thermal emissivity was estimated using Vegetation Cover Method (VCM) which is a important factor for surface temperature estimation. Relationship between land surface temperature and different land cover were analyzed. Strong correlation was observed between surface temperature and vegetation abundance over different land cover in study area. Relation between land surface temperature and vegetation abundance has also been estimated and indicating that surface temperatures can be predicted if NDVI or vegetation farction values are known. The results suggest that land surface emissivity estimation from VCM and land surface temperature using Landsat Tm 5 data can be used in vegetation condition assessment.