A physically consistent method has been developed for use in assimilating land surface temperature tendencies into the surface energy budget of a land surface model. While traditional slab models solve for a ground temperature, which represents a finite layer enveloping the surface canopy and/or the first few centimeters of the soil, a satellite views the surface skin. When making adjustments to land surface parameters using differences between model and satellite temperature tendencies, it is necessary to compare equivalent temperatures. Unfortunately, some mesoscale models are not designed with this requirement in mind. This is a well known problem which has been visited through many studies over the last few decades. Following the traditional conceptual understanding of the surface to boundary layer interaction, this method attempts to use three distinct temperatures in a mesoscale model type framework where they are applied to a satellite assimilation technique. These temperatures include a slab temperature, a radiative temperature, and an aerodynamic temperature. The slab temperature is solved using a traditional prognostic form of the surface energy budget, while the radiative temperature is solved as the equilibrium temperature of the balanced surface fluxes. The aerodynamic temperature is retrieved by using an adjustment to the radiative temperature proposed by Zilitinkevich (1970) and used in solving surface sensible and latent heat fluxes