Paper
17 December 1999 Subpixel temperature retrieval with multispectral sensors
John J. Szymanski, Christoph C. Borel, Quincy O. Harberger, Pawel Smolarkiewicz, James P. Theiler
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Abstract
High-quality, multispectral thermal infrared sensors can, under certain conditions, be used to measure more than one surface temperature in a single pixel. Surface temperature retrieval in general is a difficult task, because even for a single unknown surface, the problem is under-determined. For the example of an N-band sensor, a pixel with two materials at two temperatures will, in principle, have 2(N+1) unknowns (N emissivities and one temperature for each of two materials). In addition, the upwelling path and reflected downwelling radiances must be considered. Split-window (two or more bands) and multi-look (two or more images of the same scene) techniques provide additional information that can be used to reduce the uncertainties in temperature retrieval. Further reduction in the uncertainties is made if the emissivities are known, either a priori (e.g., for water) or by ancillary measurements. Ultimately, if the number of unknowns is reduced sufficiently, the performance of the sensor will determine the achievable temperature sensitivity. This paper will explore the temperature sensitivity for a pixel with two temperatures that can be obtained under various assumptions of sensor performance, atmospheric conditions, number of bands, number of looks, surface emissivity knowledge, and surface composition. Results on synthetic data sets will be presented.
© (1999) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
John J. Szymanski, Christoph C. Borel, Quincy O. Harberger, Pawel Smolarkiewicz, and James P. Theiler "Subpixel temperature retrieval with multispectral sensors", Proc. SPIE 3868, Remote Sensing for Earth Science, Ocean, and Sea Ice Applications, (17 December 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.373105
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CITATIONS
Cited by 3 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Sensors

Mid-IR

MODIS

Signal to noise ratio

Calibration

Temperature metrology

Error analysis

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