CONSTRUCTION OF A THERMAL INERTIA MAPPING SYSTEM (TIMS) 
FOR HYDROLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EARTH'S SURFACE USING 
SATELLITE AND GROUND MONITORING DATA 
YOJIRO UTSUNOMIYA 
Water and Soil Environment Div., National Institute 
for Environmental Studies, Environment Agency, 
16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan 
Commission IV, Working Group 6 
KEY WORDS: Remote sensing, Environment, Hydrology, soil, database, GIS 
ABSTRACT: 
In order to construct a prototype database system for heat balance analysis (Thermal Inertia Mapping System: TIMS) and 
hydrological evaluation in and around the Japan Islands, we constructed prototype water temperature and meteorological 
databases and a main processing system for thermal inertia mapping from aerometeorological and ground monitoring and 
NOAA satellite data. The components of the system were as follows: 1) Prototype database system for water temperature and 
meteorological monitoring in Japan. 2) Rectification system for NOAA AVHRR imagery. 3) Heat balance analysis, a) 
Shortwave radiation: i) albedo estimation, ii) albedo correction (absolute albedo), iii) albedo normalization and surface 
relative moisture, b) Long wave radiation: i) calculation of downward and upward radiation, ii) effective radiation, c) net 
  
radiation. 4) Calculation of diffusion coefficient. 5) Calculation of thermal inertia. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The author has developed a thermal inertia model and 
applied it to airborne MSS and ground monitoring 
micro-meteorological data. We applied this procedure to 
NOAA AVHRR data and obtained satisfactory results in 
areas from the semi-arid to arid climatic regions of 
northeastern China. As several problems with the 
estimation of parameter such as absolute albedo, 
relative soil surface wetness, short and long wave 
radiation, net radiation, diffusion coefficient and cloud 
screening in these broad areas (for about 512x512 km) 
remained for this procedure, a further study was 
conducted, and successful results were recently obtained 
by construction of a thermal inertia mapping prototype 
system (TIMS). To estimate these parameters for heat 
balance analysis in and around the Japan Islands, we 
constructed a meteorological database and main 
processing system for thermal inertia mapping from 
aerometeorological and ground monitoring and NOAA 
satellite data, thus expanding the temperature estimation 
system (Fig. 1). 
2. THERMAL INERTIA MODEL 
Thermal inertia is the heat conductance capacity and has 
a specific value for each type of material. It determines 
heat diffusion in the soil or shallow part of the earth's 
crust. For construction of a TIMS, a thermal inertia 
model is the most important consideration, as expressed 
by: 
Ma =—95 -(Vk pcp (14 1095) 
dTs!2x Cp 
...(Utsunomiya,1988,92) (1) 
  
where A: thermal conductivity of soil layer, c: specific 
heat of soil, r: specific gravity of soil, dTs and dS: daily 
range of surface temperature and net radiation, 
respectively, K: diffusion coefficient, T°: periodic time, 
p: air density, Cp: specific heat of air at constant 
pressure, l: latent heat, ju: relative wetness of soil 
surface, (7: gradient of the saturated vapor pressure curve 
  
  
{Rectification and calibration) 
E s 
1 mead pease bn spite sess, 
1 aed agrees mew kang, sake 
; FE cde £L Ai srmpenature à 
(Cond sereening system 
  
  
    
  
  
( Amedeo courection  ) 
  
  
    
   
Heat balance umalysis BL beraten 
CCAir gressus? 
| AH de | 
J Wind speed » 
   
  
Fig. 1 Total system used for thermal inertia 
mapping. 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996 
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