Remote sensing of surface and near surface temperature from remotely piloted aircraft

Surface temperature and atmospheric temperature near the surface may be estimated through a method that uses data from common types of airborne thermal infrared imager or other radiometric device having a narrow field of view. The method accounts for effects of atmospheric attenuation, surface emissivity, reflected cloud and clear sky radiance, and sensor response to various levels of approximation. Required meteorological measurements are the temperature of the intervening atmosphere and possibly the cloud base. Data acquired by other investigators suggest accuracies approaching ±1 K for certain surfaces such as water and that similar accuracies in atmospheric temperature may be expected for certain vegetated surfaces.