Resolution Revolution: A Physics-Guided Deep Learning Framework for Spatiotemporal Temperature Reconstruction

Abstract: Central to Earth observation is the trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution. For temperature, this is especially critical because real-world applications require high spatiotemporal resolution data. Current technology allows for hourly temperature observations at 2 km, but only every 16 days at 100 m, a gap further exacerbated by cloud cover. Earth system models offer continuous hourly temperature data, but at a much coarser spatial resolution (9-31 km). Here, we present a physics-guided deep learning framework for temperature data reconstruction that integrates these two data sources. The proposed framework uses a convolutional neural network that incorporates the annual temperature cycle and includes a linear term to amplify the coarse Earth system model output into fine-scale temperature values observed from satellites. We evaluated this framework using data from two satellites, GOES-16 (2 km, hourly) and Landsat (100 m, every 16 days), and demonstrated effective temperature reconstruction with hold-out and in situ data across four datasets. This physics-guided deep learning framework opens new possibilities for generating high-resolution temperature data across spatial and temporal scales, under all weather conditions and globally.