Thermal Remote Sensing

Thermal infrared sensors record the naturally emitted radiations from the Earth’s surface that can be used to derive land surface temperature. Thermal infrared remote sensing is typically used to map the spatial distribution of land surface temperatures. Such temperature distribution maps are widely used for a variety of applications such as evapotranspiration studies and geothermal exploration. In the case of very high temperature events, such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and surface coal fires, thermal infrared sensors often “saturate” and are not useful for temperature mapping. However, energy emitted from these events is sufficiently high to be captured by shorter wavelength infrared sensors, thus providing a way to remotely map and monitor them. This chapter briefly presents the principles of surface temperature estimation from remote sensing data. It then presents examples of how thermal remote sensing is used for resource exploration and monitoring as well as for geohazard studies.