Remote sensing of land surface temperature: the directional viewing effect

Land surface temperature and emissivity products are currently being derived from satellite and aircraft remote sensing data using a variety of techniques to correct for atmospheric effects. Implicit in the commonly employed approaches is the assumption of isotropy in directional thermal infrared exitance. The authors' theoretical analyses indicate angular variations in apparent infrared temperature will typically yield land surface temperature errors ranging from 1 to 4/spl deg/C unless corrective measures are applied.