Empirical proof of the empirical line

Calibrating remotely sensed data to reflectance maximizes their quantitative utility. Many approaches exist for calibrating to reflectance (ρ), one of which is the empirical line (EL) method. It offers high-quality results, often to within a few per cent, but is demanding in terms of field work and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of remote sensing Vol. 29; no. 3; pp. 665 - 672
Main Authors Baugh, W. M., Groeneveld, D. P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01.02.2008
Taylor and Francis
Subjects
Applied geophysics
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Internal geophysics
Thematic Mapper
reflectance
techniques
Space remote sensing
Landsat
data processing
solar radiation
Pixel
radiance
quality
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Summary:Calibrating remotely sensed data to reflectance maximizes their quantitative utility. Many approaches exist for calibrating to reflectance (ρ), one of which is the empirical line (EL) method. It offers high-quality results, often to within a few per cent, but is demanding in terms of field work and analysis. The method assumes there is a linear relationship between raw digital numbers (DNs) (or radiance) and reflectance spectra of ground targets. While the EL technique is widely accepted, we have not found an exhaustive demonstration that there is a truly linear relationship between radiance/DN and reflectance factors. In this paper we present an empirical demonstration of the EL method using a data set that consists of 5304 ground spectra paired with Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) pixels.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0143-1161
1366-5901
DOI:10.1080/01431160701352162