Are the Sentinel 3 SLSTR Land Surface Temperature affected by clouds?

Thank you for the exhaustive answer!
Federico

Hello Federico,

The retrieval of Land Surface Temperature is indeed affected by cloud cover, and very few studies consider scenes with clouds to retrieve LST (bar a few exceptions). Indeed, LST is derived from thermal infrared bands (TIR) which measure radiation from the top of the clouds when they are present. If you want a better overview of the effects of clouds on IR satellite imagery, Penn state college in the USA have put together an informative page.

Maxim