On the separate retrieval of soil and vegetation temperatures from ATSR data

The Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) onboard the European Remote Sens ing satellite (ERS) is presently the only one available to provide quasi-si multaneous thermal infrared measurements at two view angles. Such data repr esent an opportunity to explore the potential information on the directiona l observations in the thermal infrared region, in view of the preparation o f a new generation of multi-angle satellite sensors. Based on the analysis of one ATSR image, the results of this work indicate that the magnitude of the directional effect on the brightness temperature (ground anisotropic ra diance), although quite sensitive to errors in atmospheric conditions, may still be retrieved with acceptable uncertainty. in order to retrieve both v egetation and soil temperatures from directional brightness temperatures, i t is shown that an appropriate description of the nature and content of the pixel is needed, otherwise this retrieval will be quite uncertain.