Remote estimation of surface temperature in pollution measurement experiments

Abstract

The procedure described was developed for inferring the effective brightness temperature (EBT) of the underlying surface (at a given altitude) from the computed value of the radiance corresponding to a known surface temperature. A standard temperature correction to EBT (termed 'base correction') is first determined by using a 'base model atmosphere' for computing the upwelling radiance. Additional temperature corrections are then determined by considering several variations of the different surface and atmospheric parameters from their 'base model' values. Empirical relations are derived between the deviations of various surface and atmospheric parameters (from their base model values) and the additional corrections required for the EBT as a result of these variations. Use of such relations for large-scale data reduction, instead of radiative transfer calculations, is expected to result in drastic cost decrease.