Land Surface Temperature Annual Range

Risksv0

Responsible:Niccolò Calandri

Land Surface Temperature Annual Range (LST Range)

Overview

The LST Annual Range measures the pixel-wise difference between the maximum and minimum Land Surface Temperature (LST) values recorded over a one-year period. Expressed in degrees Celsius (°C), this indicator captures the annual thermal excursion of the land surface, providing complementary information to the mean LST value.

Formula:

LST_range = LST_max − LST_min (pixel-wise, annual basis)

Interpretation of values:

High range values (> 25 °C) → large annual thermal excursion; typical of continental climates, inland areas with sparse vegetation cover, or urban zones with marked Urban Heat Island seasonality
Moderate range values (15–25 °C) → moderate thermal excursion; temperate areas with variable vegetation cover
Low range values (< 15 °C) → thermal stability; oceanic climates, coastal areas, evergreen forests with high ecosystem thermoregulation capacity

The indicator is particularly useful for:

Assessing thermal vulnerability of ecosystems
Identifying areas with high surface climatic instability
Monitoring the thermal mitigation effect of vegetation throughout the year

Calculation Methodology

The calculation uses the Landsat 8/9 Collection 2 Level-2 dataset (NASA/USGS, 30 m resolution), available from 2013 via the thermal band ST_B10 (10.6–11.19 µm).

Data acquisition — all available Landsat 8/9 scenes for the area of interest over the calendar year are selected
Cloud filtering — removal of cloudy pixels via the QA_PIXEL band with accepted values: 21824, 21888, 30048. Cloud coverage threshold is dynamic (20%–100%)
Temperature conversion — DN values from the thermal band are converted to surface temperature (°C): LST_Kelvin = DN × 0.00341802 + 149.0, then LST_°C = LST_Kelvin − 273.15
Pixel-wise max and min extraction — for each pixel, the maximum and minimum LST values across all available scenes in the year are computed
Range calculation — LST_range = LST_max − LST_min for each pixel
Reprojection — the resulting raster is reprojected to the requested CRS (default EPSG:3857)

Data Sources

Code	Name	Provider	Type	Coverage	Resolution	Availability
`WRD_L8XXX_99`	Landsat 8/9 Collection 2 L2	NASA / USGS	Thermal raster	Global	30 m	2013 — present

Technical Notes

Native thermal band resolution is 100 m, resampled to 30 m in the Level-2 product
Range is sensitive to cloud-free scene availability: in areas with high cloud cover, the range may be underestimated
Winter scenes with snow cover may influence the minimum LST value
The calculation is based on daytime LST (Landsat overpass ~10:00 local time); nighttime range is not included

References

Jiménez-Muñoz, J.C. et al. (2014). "Land Surface Temperature Retrieval Methods From Landsat-8 Thermal Infrared Sensor Data". IEEE GRSL, 11(10), pp. 1840–1843.
Wan, Z., Dozier, J. (1996). "A generalized split-window algorithm for retrieving land-surface temperature from space". IEEE TGRS, 34(4), pp. 892–905.

Data Sources & References

Sources

WRD_L8XXX_99

Methodology

Il range della LST viene calcolato a partire dalle immagini Landsat 8/9 Collection 2 Level-2, utilizzando la banda termica ST_B10 (10.6–11.19 µm). Per ciascun pixel, vengono estratti i valori massimo e minimo della LST su tutte le scene disponibili nell'arco dell'anno, dopo filtraggio cloud tramite la banda QA_PIXEL. Il range è calcolato come differenza tra il massimo e il minimo (LST_range = LST_max − LST_min). I valori DN vengono convertiti in temperatura (°C) con i fattori di scala USGS (LST_Kelvin = DN × 0.00341802 + 149.0, LST_°C = LST_Kelvin − 273.15).

Land Surface Temperature Annual Range (LST Range)

Overview

Formula:

LST_range = LST_max − LST_min (pixel-wise, annual basis)

Interpretation of values:

High range values (> 25 °C) → large annual thermal excursion; typical of continental climates, inland areas with sparse vegetation cover, or urban zones with marked Urban Heat Island seasonality

Moderate range values (15–25 °C) → moderate thermal excursion; temperate areas with variable vegetation cover

Low range values (< 15 °C) → thermal stability; oceanic climates, coastal areas, evergreen forests with high ecosystem thermoregulation capacity

The indicator is particularly useful for:

Assessing thermal vulnerability of ecosystems

Identifying areas with high surface climatic instability

Monitoring the thermal mitigation effect of vegetation throughout the year

Calculation Methodology

The calculation uses the Landsat 8/9 Collection 2 Level-2 dataset (NASA/USGS, 30 m resolution), available from 2013 via the thermal band ST_B10 (10.6–11.19 µm).

Data acquisition — all available Landsat 8/9 scenes for the area of interest over the calendar year are selected

Cloud filtering — removal of cloudy pixels via the QA_PIXEL band with accepted values: 21824, 21888, 30048. Cloud coverage threshold is dynamic (20%–100%)

Temperature conversion — DN values from the thermal band are converted to surface temperature (°C): LST_Kelvin = DN × 0.00341802 + 149.0, then LST_°C = LST_Kelvin − 273.15

Pixel-wise max and min extraction — for each pixel, the maximum and minimum LST values across all available scenes in the year are computed

Range calculation — LST_range = LST_max − LST_min for each pixel

Reprojection — the resulting raster is reprojected to the requested CRS (default EPSG:3857)

Code

Name

Provider

Type

Coverage

Resolution

Availability

WRD_L8XXX_99

Landsat 8/9 Collection 2 L2

NASA / USGS

Thermal raster

Global

30 m

2013 — present

Data Sources & References

Sources

WRD_L8XXX_99