Estimation of thermal flux and emissivity of the land surface from multispectral aircraft data

In order to evaluate the importance of surface thermal flux and emissivity variations on surface and boundary layer processes, a technique that uses thermal data from an airborne multispectral scanner to determine the surface skin temperature and thermal emissivity over a regional area has been developed. These values are used to estimate the total flux density emanating from the surface and at the top of the atmosphere. Data from the multispectral atmospheric mapping sensor (MAMS) collected during the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) are used to develop the technique, and to show the time and space variability of the flux values. The ground truth data available during FIFE provide a unique resource to evaluate this technique.