This book provides a comprehensive and advanced overview of the basic theory of thermal remote sensing and its application in hydrology, agriculture, and forestry. Specifically, the book highlights the main theory, assumptions, advantages, drawbacks, and perspectives of these methods for the retrieval and validation of surface temperature/emissivity and evapotranspiration from thermal infrared remote sensing. It will be an especially valuable resource for students, researchers, experts, and decision-makers whose interest focuses on the retrieval and validation of surface temperature/emissivity, the estimation and validation of evapotranspiration at satellite pixel scale, and the application of thermal remote sensing. Both Prof. Huajun Tang and Prof. Zhao-Liang Li work at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China.

Many multispectral (MSS) systems sense radiation in the thermal infrared as well as the visible and reflected infrared portions of the spectrum. However, remote sensing of energy emitted from the Earth's surface in the thermal infrared (3μm to 15μm) is different than the sensing of reflected energy. Thermal sensors use photo detectors sensitive to the direct contact of photons on their surface, to detect emitted thermal radiation. Remote sensing has entered a new era in the twenty-first century with a series of operating satellites from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program, other international programs, and commercial programs. Remote sensing has advanced significantly over the past half-century in the capacity to retrieve useful biochemical, physiological and structural quantities across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Detecting and monitoring heat loss from buildings in urban areas is an excellent application of thermal remote sensing. Quantitative Remote Sensing in Thermal Infrared provides a comprehensive and advanced overview of the basic theory of thermal remote sensing and its application in hydrology, agriculture, and forestry. It will be an especially valuable resource for students, researchers, experts, and decision-makers whose interest focuses on the retrieval and validation of surface temperature/emissivity, the estimation and validation of evapotranspiration at satellite pixel scale, and the application of thermal remote sensing.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of thermal infrared remote sensing. Temperature is one of the most important physical environmental variables monitored by earth observing remote sensing systems. Temperature ranges define the boundaries of habitats on our planet. Thermal hazards endanger our resources and well-being. In this book renowned international experts have contributed chapters on currently available thermal sensors as well as innovative plans for future missions. Further chapters discuss the underlying physics and image processing techniques for analyzing thermal data. Ground-breaking chapters on applications present a wide variety of case studies leading to a deepened understanding of land and sea surface temperature dynamics, urban heat island effects, forest fires, volcanic eruption precursors, underground coal fires, geothermal systems, soil moisture variability, and temperature-based mineral discrimination. ‘Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing: Sensors, Methods, Applications’ is unique because of the large field it spans, the potentials it reveals, and the detail it provides. This book is an indispensable volume for scientists, lecturers, and decision makers interested in thermal infrared technology, methods, and applications.

Processing the vast amounts of data on the Earth's land surface environment generated by NASA's and other international satellite programs is a significant challenge. Filling a gap between the theoretical, physically-based modelling and specific applications, this in-depth study presents practical quantitative algorithms for estimating various land surface variables from remotely sensed observations. A concise review of the basic principles of optical remote sensing as well as practical algorithms for estimating land surface variables quantitatively from remotely sensed observations. Emphasizes both the basic principles of optical remote sensing and practical algorithms for estimating land surface variables quantitatively from remotely sensed observations Presents the current physical understanding of remote sensing as a system with a focus on radiative transfer modelling of the atmosphere, canopy, soil and snow Gathers the state of the art quantitative algorithms for sensor calibration, atmospheric and topographic correction, estimation of a variety of biophysical and geoph ysical variables, and four-dimensional data assimilation

The Fifth International Symposium on Recent Advances in Quantitative Remote Sensing was held in Torrent, Spain from 18 to 22 September 2018. It was sponsored and organized by the Global Change Unit (GCU) from the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL), University of Valencia (UVEG), Spain. This Symposium addressed the scientific advances in quantitative remote sensing in connection with real applications. Its main goal was to assess the state of the art of both theory and applications in the analysis of remote sensing data, as well as to provide a forum for researcher in this subject area to exchange views and report their latest results. In this book 89 of the 262 contributions presented in both plenary and poster sessions are arranged according to the scientific topics selected. The papers are ranked in the same order as the final programme.

Although remote sensing is recognized as a powerful tool, less attention has been given in the past to the use of thermal, and especially thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing. TIR data is useful for understanding the fluxes and redistribution of materials as a key aspect of land surface processes and land-atmosphere inter-relationships. This book