{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]],"date-time":"2026-08-06T21:57:41Z","timestamp":1786053461182,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,4]],"date-time":"2019-12-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1575417600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The surface and near-surface air temperature observations are primary data for glacio-hydro-climatological studies. The in situ air temperature (Ta) observations require intense logistic and financial investments, making it sparse and fragmented particularly in remote and extreme environments. The temperatures in Himalaya are controlled by a complex system driven by topography, seasons, and cryosphere which further makes it difficult to record or predict its spatial heterogeneity. In this regard, finding a way to fill the observational spatiotemporal gaps in data becomes more crucial. Here, we show the comparison of Ta recorded at 11 high altitude stations in Western Himalaya with their respective land surface temperatures (Ts) recorded by Moderate Resolution Imagining Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua and Terra satellites in cloud-free conditions. We found remarkable seasonal and spatial trends in the Ta vs. Ts relationship: (i) Ts are strongly correlated with Ta (R2 = 0.77, root mean square difference (RMSD) = 5.9 \u00b0C, n = 11,101 at daily scale and R2 = 0.80, RMSD = 5.7 \u00b0C, n = 3552 at 8-day scale); (ii) in general, the RMSD is lower for the winter months in comparison to summer months for all the stations, (iii) the RMSD is directly proportional to the elevations; (iv) the RMSD is inversely proportional to the annual precipitation. Our results demonstrate the statistically strong and previously unreported Ta vs. Ts relationship and spatial and seasonal variations in its intensity at daily resolution for the Western Himalaya. We anticipate that our results will provide the scientists in Himalaya or similar data-deficient extreme environments with an option to use freely available remotely observed Ts products in their models to fill-up the spatiotemporal data gaps related to in situ monitoring at daily resolution. Substituting Ta by Ts as input in various geophysical models can even improve the model accuracy as using spatially continuous satellite derived Ts in place of discrete in situ Ta extrapolated to different elevations using a constant lapse rate can provide more realistic estimates.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11242889","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,5]],"date-time":"2019-12-05T06:21:39Z","timestamp":1575526899000},"page":"2889","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Quantifying the Congruence between Air and Land Surface Temperatures for Various Climatic and Elevation Zones of Western Himalaya"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4304-388X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shaktiman","family":"Singh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Space Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2502-6384","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anshuman","family":"Bhardwaj","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Space Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Atar","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Science, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201310, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lydia","family":"Sam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Space Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mayank","family":"Shekhar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow 226007, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"F. Javier","family":"Mart\u00edn-Torres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Space Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"},{"name":"Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC-UGR), Armilla, 18100 Granada, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4492-9650","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mar\u00eda-Paz","family":"Zorzano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Space Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Lule\u00e5 University of Technology, 97187 Lule\u00e5, Sweden"},{"name":"Centro de Astrobiolog\u00eda (INTA-CSIC), Torrej\u00f3n de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"RG4004","DOI":"10.1029\/2010RG000345","article-title":"Global surface temperature change","volume":"48","author":"Hansen","year":"2010","journal-title":"Rev. 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