From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Australian mean land-surface temperature

Created 19/11/2025

Updated 19/11/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

The mean land-surface temperature represents an important boundary condition for many geothermal studies. This boundary is particularly important to help constrain the models made to analyse resource systems, many of which are shallow in nature and observe relatively small thermal gradients. Consequently, a mean land-surface temperature map of the Australian continent has been produced from 13 years of MODIS satellite imagery, for the period 2003–2015. The map shows good agreement with independent methods of estimating mean land-surface temperature, including borehole surface-temperature extrapolation and long-term, near-surface ground measurements. In comparison to previously used methods of estimating mean land-surface temperature, our new estimates are up to 12 °C warmer. The MODIS-based method presented in this study provides spatially continuous estimates of land-surface temperature that can be incorporated as the surface thermal boundary condition in geothermal studies. The method is also able to provide a quantification of the uncertainties expected in the application of these estimates for the purposes of thermal modelling. Citation: Marcus W. Haynes, Frank G. Horowitz, Malcolm Sambridge, Ed J. Gerner, Graeme R. Beardsmore, Australian mean land-surface temperature, Geothermics, Volume 72, 2018, Pages 156-162, ISSN 0375-6505, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2017.10.008.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Australian mean land-surface temperature
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/f4bdb8f4-4f7e-403f-86c8-53dd2e0f642c
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 04/11/2016
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Australian mean land-surface temperature". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/australian-mean-land-surface-temperature1