Estimating net radiation with remotely sensed data: Results from KUREX-91 and FIFE studies

Net radiation (Rn) is the major source of energy for evaporating water, heating the soil and air, and photosynthesis. The objective of this study is to estimate this important parameter with various models that have been developed to estimate the radiation balance components with remotely sensed dat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRemote sensing reviews Vol. 17; no. 1-4; pp. 55 - 71
Main Authors Blad, B.L., Walter-Shea, E.A., Mesarch, M.A., Hays, C.J., Starks, P.J., Deering, D.W., Eck, T.F.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 01.06.1998
Subjects
Albedo
Atmospheric radiation
Atmospheric temperature
Light reflection
Mathematical models
Meteorology
Net radiation
Radiation balance
Reflected radiation
Remote sensing
Vapor pressure
Vegetation
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Summary:Net radiation (Rn) is the major source of energy for evaporating water, heating the soil and air, and photosynthesis. The objective of this study is to estimate this important parameter with various models that have been developed to estimate the radiation balance components with remotely sensed data, and readily available meteorological data. Data used in this paper were collected over grassland vegetation during the FIFE-87, -88, -89 studies and the KUREX-91 study. For all studies estimated values of Rn were within about 10% of measured Rn. For the KUREX-91 study, measured and estimated Rn agreed to within about 1%. Improvement in a model(s) to estimate the reflected shortwave flux would provide an even better estimate of Rn since in all studies the reflected radiation stream was overestimated compared to the measured values. There was no clear trend for under or over-estimation of incoming short-wave radiation from study to study. Components of the long-wave balance were estimated with low mean relative errors when the incoming long-wave flux was corrected for a bias in clear daytime values. Thus, it appears feasible to use remotely sensed data to estimate the incoming and outgoing short-wave radiation fluxes and the outgoing long-wave radiation flux and to combine these fluxes with estimates of the incoming long-wave radiation flux estimated from models which incorporate air temperature and vapor pressure data.
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ISSN:0275-7257
DOI:10.1080/02757259809532363