{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T12:07:13Z","timestamp":1784030833937,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,11,25]],"date-time":"2016-11-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1480032000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Chinese State Key Basic Research Project","award":["2013CB733406"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2013CB733406"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41371341"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41371341"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41531174"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41531174"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Most current statistical models for downscaling the remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) are based on the assumption of the scale-invariant LST-descriptors relationship, which is being debated and requires an in-depth examination. Additionally, research on downscaling LST to high or very high resolutions (~10 m) is still rare. Here, a simple analytical model was developed to quantify the scale effect in downscaling the LST from a medium resolution (~100 m) to high resolutions. The model was verified in the Zhangye oasis and Beijing city. Examinations of the simulation datasets that were generated based on airborne and space station LSTs demonstrate that the developed model can predict the scale effect in LST downscaling; the scale effect exists in both of these two study areas. The model was further applied to 12 ASTER images in the Zhangye oasis during a complete crop growing season and one Landsat-8 TIRS image in Beijing city in the summer. The results demonstrate that the scale effect is intrinsically caused by the varying probability distribution of the LST and its descriptors at the native and target resolutions. The scale effect depends on the values of the descriptors, the phenology, and the ratio of the native resolution to the target resolution. Removing the scale effect would not necessarily improve the accuracy of the downscaled LST.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8120975","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,11,25]],"date-time":"2016-11-25T08:18:15Z","timestamp":1480061895000},"page":"975","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":55,"title":["Quantification of the Scale Effect in Downscaling Remotely Sensed Land Surface Temperature"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Ji","family":"Zhou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Resources and Environment, Center for Information Geoscience, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shaomin","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingsong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Resources and Environment, Center for Information Geoscience, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenfeng","family":"Zhan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziwei","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tongren","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,11,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"421","DOI":"10.1007\/s10712-008-9037-z","article-title":"Estimating land surface evaporation: A review of methods using remotely sensed surface temperature data","volume":"29","author":"Kalma","year":"2008","journal-title":"Surv. Geophys."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.12.008","article-title":"Satellite-derived land surface temperature: Current status and perspectives","volume":"131","author":"Li","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"296","DOI":"10.1002\/met.287","article-title":"Remote sensing land surface temperature for meteorology and climatology: A review","volume":"18","author":"Tomlinson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Meteorol. Appl."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"370","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(03)00079-8","article-title":"Thermal remote sensing of urban climates","volume":"86","author":"Voogt","year":"2003","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2013.08.027","article-title":"New refinements and validation of the collection-6 MODIS land-surface temperature\/emissivity product","volume":"140","author":"Wan","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Trigo, I.F., Monteiro, I.T., Olesen, F., and Kabsch, E. (2008). An assessment of remotely sensed land surface temperature. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 113.","DOI":"10.1029\/2008JD010035"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3184","DOI":"10.3390\/rs4103184","article-title":"Downscaling land surface temperature in an urban area: A case study for Hamburg, Germany","volume":"4","author":"Bechtel","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"429","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(03)00036-1","article-title":"Estimating subpixel surface temperatures and energy fluxes from the vegetation index\u2013radiometric temperature relationship","volume":"85","author":"Kustas","year":"2003","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3437","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2012.716921","article-title":"The MISTIGRI thermal infrared project: Scientific objectives and mission specifications","volume":"34","author":"Lagouarde","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.08.025","article-title":"Use of Landsat thermal imagery in monitoring evapotranspiration and managing water resources","volume":"122","author":"Anderson","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.04.042","article-title":"Impact of spatial resolution and satellite overpass time on evaluation of the surface urban heat island effects","volume":"117","author":"Sobrino","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2010.2070871","article-title":"Maximum nighttime urban heat island (UHI) intensity simulation by integrating remotely sensed data and meteorological observations","volume":"4","author":"Zhou","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.12.014","article-title":"Disaggregation of remotely sensed land surface temperature: Literature survey, taxonomy, issues, and caveats","volume":"131","author":"Zhan","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"773","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2010.2060342","article-title":"Sharpening thermal imageries: A generalized theoretical framework from an assimilation perspective","volume":"49","author":"Zhan","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1588","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2012.2207461","article-title":"Surface temperature downscaling from multiresolution instruments based on Markov models","volume":"51","author":"Kallel","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2131","DOI":"10.1002\/2013JD020354","article-title":"Genetic particle filter application to land surface temperature downscaling","volume":"119","author":"Mechri","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"545","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2006.10.006","article-title":"A vegetation index based technique for spatial sharpening of thermal imagery","volume":"107","author":"Agam","year":"2007","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2019","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2016.2514367","article-title":"Downscaling of Landsat and MODIS land surface temperature over the heterogeneous urban area of Milan","volume":"9","author":"Bonafoni","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1772","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.03.008","article-title":"High-resolution urban thermal sharpener (HUTS)","volume":"115","author":"Dominguez","year":"2011","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"163","article-title":"Evaluation of the DisTrad thermal sharpening methodology for urban areas","volume":"19","author":"Essa","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2500","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2010.05.025","article-title":"Disaggregation of MODIS surface temperature over an agricultural area using a time series of Formosat-2 images","volume":"114","author":"Merlin","year":"2010","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"118","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2013.03.023","article-title":"Development and verification of a non-linear disaggregation method (NL-DisTrad) to downscale MODIS land surface temperature to the spatial scale of Landsat thermal data to estimate evapotranspiration","volume":"135","author":"Bindhu","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2015.02.041","article-title":"Multi-scales and multi-satellites estimates of evapotranspiration with a residual energy balance model in the Muzza agricultural district in Northern Italy","volume":"524","author":"Corbari","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"178","article-title":"Evaluating a thermal image sharpening model over a mixed agricultural landscape in India","volume":"13","author":"Jeganathan","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"95","article-title":"Downscaling of thermal images over urban areas using the land surface temperature\u2013impervious percentage relationship","volume":"23","author":"Essa","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sismanidis, P., Keramitsoglou, I., Kiranoudis, C., and Bechtel, B. (2016). Assessing the capability of a downscaled urban land surface temperature time series to reproduce the spatiotemporal features of the original data. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8040274"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"655","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asr.2014.04.013","article-title":"A comparison of different regression models for downscaling Landsat and MODIS land surface temperature images over heterogeneous landscape","volume":"54","author":"Mukherjee","year":"2014","journal-title":"Adv. Space Res."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.05.027","article-title":"Downscaling land surface temperature for urban heat island diurnal cycle analysis","volume":"117","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"549","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2011.2174453","article-title":"Scale effect of vegetation-index-based spatial sharpening for thermal imagery: A simulation study by ASTER data","volume":"9","author":"Chen","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"76","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2014.07.003","article-title":"Hyperspectral imagery for disaggregation of land surface temperature with selected regression algorithms over different land use land cover scenes","volume":"96","author":"Ghosh","year":"2014","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1080\/10095020.2014.889546","article-title":"A simple error estimation method for linear-regression-based thermal sharpening techniques with the consideration of scale difference","volume":"17","author":"Chen","year":"2014","journal-title":"Geo-Spat. Inf. Sci."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3287","DOI":"10.3390\/rs4113287","article-title":"A data mining approach for sharpening thermal satellite imagery over land","volume":"4","author":"Gao","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"515","article-title":"Downscaling Landsat 7 ETM+ thermal imagery using land surface temperature and NDVI images","volume":"18","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3063","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2011.627888","article-title":"A technique for spatial sharpening of thermal imagery of coastal waters and of watercourses","volume":"33","author":"Teggi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2016.04.008","article-title":"Upscaling evapotranspiration measurements from multi-site to the satellite pixel scale over heterogeneous land surfaces","volume":"230\u2013231","author":"Liu","year":"2016","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2016.01.005","article-title":"Application of remote sensing-based two-source energy balance model for mapping field surface fluxes with composite and component surface temperatures","volume":"230\u2013231","author":"Song","year":"2016","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"671","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2014.2356652","article-title":"Estimations of regional surface energy fluxes over heterogeneous oasis-desert surfaces in the middle reaches of the Heihe River during HiWATER-MUSOEXE","volume":"12","author":"Ma","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1145","DOI":"10.1175\/BAMS-D-12-00154.1","article-title":"Heihe watershed allied telemetry experimental research (HiWATER): Scientific objectives and experimental design","volume":"94","author":"Li","year":"2013","journal-title":"Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13140","DOI":"10.1002\/2013JD020260","article-title":"Intercomparison of surface energy flux measurement systems used during the HiWATER-MUSOEXE","volume":"118","author":"Xu","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7126","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70607126","article-title":"Validation and performance evaluations of methods for estimating land surface temperatures from ASTER data in the middle reach of the Heihe River basin, northwest China","volume":"7","author":"Zhou","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"662","DOI":"10.1117\/12.606026","article-title":"MODTRAN 5: A reformulated atmospheric band model with auxiliary species and practical multiple scattering options: Update","volume":"5806","author":"Berk","year":"2005","journal-title":"Proc. SPIE"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2004.02.003","article-title":"Land surface temperature retrieval from LANDSAT TM 5","volume":"90","author":"Sobrino","year":"2004","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2582","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2011.617396","article-title":"Intercomparison of methods for estimating land surface temperature from a Landsat-5 TM image in an arid region with low water vapour in the atmosphere","volume":"33","author":"Zhou","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9829","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6109829","article-title":"Land surface temperature retrieval from Landsat 8 TIRS-comparison between radiative transfer equation-based method, split window algorithm and single channel method","volume":"6","author":"Yu","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"353","DOI":"10.1080\/014311600210876","article-title":"Toward remote sensing methods for land cover dynamic monitoring: Application to Morocco","volume":"21","author":"Sobrino","year":"2000","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, H., Xiao, Q., Li, H., and Zhong, B. (2011, January 9\u201311). Temperature and emissivity separation algorithm for TASI airborne thermal hyperspectral data. Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Control (ICECC), Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICECC.2011.6066288"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7568","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2013.821576","article-title":"Modelling the diurnal variations of urban heat islands with multi-source satellite data","volume":"34","author":"Zhou","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_48","first-page":"133","article-title":"Land surface temperature retrieval from Tiangong-1 data and its applications in urban heat island effect","volume":"18","author":"Li","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(94)90090-6","article-title":"Relations between evaporation coefficients and vegetation indices studied by model simulations","volume":"50","author":"Choudhury","year":"1994","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1115","DOI":"10.1007\/s12040-014-0452-x","article-title":"Influence of soil moisture content on surface albedo and soil thermal parameters at a tropical station","volume":"123","author":"Sugathan","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"213","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(00)00205-4","article-title":"Narrowband to broadband conversions of land surface albedo I: Algorithms","volume":"76","author":"Liang","year":"2001","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160304987","article-title":"Use of normalized difference built-up index in automatically mapping urban areas from TM imagery","volume":"24","author":"Zha","year":"2003","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Agam, N., Kustas, W.P., Anderson, M.C., Li, F., and Colaizzi, P.D. (2007). Utility of thermal sharpening over Texas high plains irrigated agricultural fields. J. Geophys. Res., 112.","DOI":"10.1029\/2007JD008407"},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2006.06.012","article-title":"Scaling of land surface temperature using satellite data: A case examination on ASTER and MODIS products over a heterogeneous terrain area","volume":"105","author":"Liu","year":"2006","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1109\/97.995823","article-title":"A universal image quality index","volume":"9","author":"Wang","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Signal Process. Lett."},{"key":"ref_56","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3069","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2011.06.009","article-title":"A statistical spatial downscaling algorithm of TRMM precipitation based on NDVI and DEM in the Qaidam Basin of China","volume":"115","author":"Jia","year":"2011","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/8\/12\/975\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T19:27:28Z","timestamp":1760210848000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/8\/12\/975"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2016,11,25]]},"references-count":56,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,12]]}},"alternative-id":["rs8120975"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs8120975","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2016,11,25]]}}}