Observed relation between thermal emission and reflected spectral radiance of a complex vegetated landscape

• Published in: Remote sensing of environment 1985-10, Vol.18 (2), p.137-146
• Main Authors: Goward, Samuel N, Cruickshanks, George D, Hope, Allen S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural and forest climatology and meteorology. Irrigation. Drainage; Agricultural and forest meteorology; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Crop climate. Energy and radiation balances; Earth Resources And Remote Sensing; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agronomy. Plant production; General aspects. Techniques; Generalities. Biometrics, experimentation. Remote sensing; Remote sensing; Teledetection and vegetation maps
• ISSN: 0034-4257; 1879-0704
• DOI: 10.1016/0034-4257(85)90044-6

An investigation is conducted, for a complex vegetated land area, into the statistical relationship between remotely sensed thermal emissions and reflected spectral radiance. The Kauth—Thomas Tasseled Cap transformation is employed to infer the albedo and amount of green vegetation present from Landsat multispectral scanner (MSS) observations. Reflective data and thermal infrared data were acquired from the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) satellite along with reflective data from the Landsat 3 MSS for a site near Hartford, CT on a single date. Results are presented which indicate that thermal emissions had the greatest association with the amount of vegetation as indicated by a multispectral index, while albedo did not exhibit any substantial relationship with these emissions. These findings are explained in terms of the enhanced latent heat flux to the atmosphere associated with actively transpiring vegetation.