Remote Sens._**2015**, \(7\), 5828-5848; doi:10.3390/rs70505828  
_remote sensing_  
ISSN 2072-4292  
www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing  
_Article_  
Using the Surface Temperature-Albedo Space to Separate Regional Soil and Vegetation Temperatures from ASTER Data  
**[PERSON] 1,2, [PERSON] 1,*, [PERSON] 2, [PERSON] 3 and [PERSON] 1,4**  
1 State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, and School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; E-Mails: [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (L.S.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.M.)  
2 Hydroology and Remote Sensing Lab, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA; E-Mail: [PERSON]ESS]  
3 School of Resources and Environment, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; E-Mail: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
4 Department of Geography, Handan College, Handan 056005, China  
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: [EMAIL_ADDRESS]; Tel: +86-10-5880-2240. Fax: +86-10-5880-5274.  
Academic Editors: [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON]  
_Received: 20 January 2015 / Accepted: 29 April 2015 / Published: 8 May 2015_  
Soil and vegetation component temperatures in non-isothermal pixels encapsulate more physical meaning and are more applicable than composite temperatures. The component temperatures however are difficult to be obtained from thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing data provided by single view angle observations. Here, we present a land surface temperature and albedo (_T_-\(\alpha\)) space approach combined with the mono-surface energy balance (SEB-1S) model to derive soil and vegetation component temperatures. The _T_-\(\alpha\) space can be established from visible and near infrared (VNIR) and TIR data provided by single view angle observations. This approach separates the soil and vegetation component temperatures from the remotely sensed composite temperatures by incorporating soil wetness iso-lines for defining equivalent soil temperatures; this allows vegetation temperatures to be extracted from the _T_-\(\alpha\) space. This temperature separation methodology was applied to advanced scanning thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) VNIR and high spatial resolution TIR image data in an artificial oasis area during the entire growing season. Comparisons with ground measurements showed that the _T_-\(\alpha\) space approach produced reliable soil and vegetation component temperatures in the study area. Low root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.83 K for soil temperatures and 1.64 K for vegetation temperatures, respectively, were obtained, compared to component temperatures measurements from a ground-based thermal camera. These results support the use of soil wetness iso-lines to derive soil surface temperatures. It was also found that the estimated vegetation temperatures were extremely close to the near surface air temperature observations when the landscape is well watered under full vegetation cover. More robust soil and vegetation temperature estimates will improve estimates of soil evaporation and vegetation transpiration, leading to more reliable the monitoring of crop water stress and drought.  
keywords: land surface temperature and albedo space; SEB-1S; soil and vegetation component temperatures; validation; advanced scanning thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) +
Footnote †: journal: Remote Sens.