This paper developed a practical split-window (SW) algorithm to estimate land surface temperature (LST) from Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) aboard Landsat 8. The coefficients of the SW algorithm were determined based on atmospheric water vapor sub-ranges, which were obtained through a modified split-window covariance–variance ratio method. The channel emissivities were acquired from newly released global land cover products at 30 m and from a fraction of the vegetation cover calculated from visible and near-infrared images aboard Landsat 8. Simulation results showed that the new algorithm can obtain LST with an accuracy of better than 1.0 K. The model consistency to the noise of the brightness temperature, emissivity and water vapor was conducted, which indicated the robustness of the new algorithm in LST retrieval. Furthermore, based on comparisons, the new algorithm performed better than the existing algorithms in retrieving LST from TIRS data. Finally, the SW algorithm was proven to be reliable through application in different regions. To further confirm the credibility of the SW algorithm, the LST will be validated in the future.

The radiometric performance of remotely-sensed images is important for the applications of such data in monitoring land surface, ocean and atmospheric status. One requirement placed on the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) onboard Landsat 8 was that the noise-equivalent change in temperature (NEΔT) should be ≤0.4 K at 300 K for its two thermal infrared bands. In order to optimize the use of TIRS data, this study investigated the on-orbit NEΔT of the TIRS two bands from a scene-based method using clear-sky images over uniform ground surfaces, including lake, deep ocean, snow, desert and Gobi, as well as dense vegetation. Results showed that the NEΔTs of the two bands were 0.051 and 0.06 K at 300 K, which exceeded the design specification by an order of magnitude. The effect of NEΔT on the land surface temperature (LST) retrieval using a split window algorithm was discussed, and the estimated NEΔT could contribute only 3.5% to the final LST error in theory, whereas the required NEΔT could contribute up to 26.4%. Low NEΔT could improve the application of TIRS images. However, efforts are needed in the future to remove the effects of unwanted stray light that appears in the current TIRS images.