The Effect of Trunks on Directional Brightness Temperatures of a Leafless Forest Using a Geometrical Optical Model

In the paper, a geometric optical model is proposed for a vegetation-trunk-soil scene. The effect of tree trunks was analyzed by comparing directional brightness temperatures (BTs) between vegetation-soil and vegetation-trunk-soil scenes. The comparison result reveals the tree trunk can cause directional BTs as a whole lower because of its shadow and shaded area. Therefore, the tree trunk should be considered when retrieving temperatures from thermal infrared observations over a leafless forest. Efforts using measured TIR data requires to be done in the future.