Scaling of Thermal Images at Different Spatial Resolution: The Mixed Pixel Problem

The consequences of changes in spatial resolution for application of thermal imagery in plant phenotyping in the field are discussed. Where image pixels are significantly smaller than the objects of interest (e.g., leaves), accurate estimates of leaf temperature are possible, but when pixels reach the same scale or larger than the objects of interest, the observed temperatures become significantly biased by the background temperature as a result of the presence of mixed pixels. Approaches to the estimation of the true leaf temperature that apply both at the whole-pixel level and at the sub-pixel level are reviewed and discussed.