In an article published in 1999, we examined the direct or indirect uses of thermal
infrared (TIR) remote sensing data to analyze landscape biophysical characteristics to
offer insight on how these data can be used more robustly for furthering the
understanding and modeling of landscape ecological processes (Quattrochi and
Luvall, 1999). As we noted at the time our article was published, we believed there
was a perception that TIR data were difficult to use for applications in landscape
characterization and analysis. Here we present a review and update of the literature
related to TIR remote sensing in landscape ecological process studies both to further
illustrate how the literature has grown and to expand upon research area themes that
were not included in our original article. Additionally, as we noted in our 1999 article,
accessing the literature related to TIR data and landscape ecological processes was
difficult because of its fragmentation across a wide spectrum of journals or other
scientific resources. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of research on TIR data
and landscape processes, this is still true to some extent today; the literature on TIR
remote sensing applications for land surface process analysis is being published in a
wide range of publications, such as those focused strictly on remote sensing, or spread
across numerous inter- or multidisciplinary publications such as hydrometeorology,
climatology, meteorology, or agronomy.
As we related in 1999 and expounded upon in our edited volume Thermal Remote
Sensing in Land Surface Processes (Quattrochi and Luvall, 2004), we foresaw that the
application of TIR remote sensing data to landscape ecological studies has been
limited for three primary reasons:
1. TIR data are little understood from both a theoretical and applications perspective within the landscape ecological community.
2. TIR data are perceived as being difficult to obtain and work with to those
researchers who are uninitiated to the characteristics and attributes of these data
in landscape ecological research.
3. The spatial resolution of TIR data, primarily from satellite data, is viewed as
being too coarse for landscape ecological research, and calibration of these data
for deriving measurements of landscape thermal energy fluxes is seen as being
problematic.
Given the increase from 1999 (and even from 2004 when our book was published)
in the TIR literature that has been published, these three issues have been considerably
mitigated but not entirely mollified. It, therefore, is still useful to examine examples of
the literature that have been published post-1999 to provide further evidence and
review of how TIR data has been applied to landscape ecological and land processes
research. As was described in our article and book, there are two fundamental ways
that TIR data can contribute to an improved understanding of landscape processes: (1)
through the measurement of surface temperatures as related to specific landscape and
biophysical components and (2) through relating surface temperature with energy
fluxes for specific phenomena or processes. This is not an exhaustive review; we wish
only to provide further credence using selected studies taken from the literature that
highlight and support the utility of TIR data to quantify and model land surface
INTRODUCTION
35
infrared (TIR) remote sensing data to analyze landscape biophysical characteristics to
offer insight on how these data can be used more robustly for furthering the
understanding and modeling of landscape ecological processes (Quattrochi and
Luvall, 1999). As we noted at the time our article was published, we believed there
was a perception that TIR data were difficult to use for applications in landscape
characterization and analysis. Here we present a review and update of the literature
related to TIR remote sensing in landscape ecological process studies both to further
illustrate how the literature has grown and to expand upon research area themes that
were not included in our original article. Additionally, as we noted in our 1999 article,
accessing the literature related to TIR data and landscape ecological processes was
difficult because of its fragmentation across a wide spectrum of journals or other
scientific resources. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of research on TIR data
and landscape processes, this is still true to some extent today; the literature on TIR
remote sensing applications for land surface process analysis is being published in a
wide range of publications, such as those focused strictly on remote sensing, or spread
across numerous inter- or multidisciplinary publications such as hydrometeorology,
climatology, meteorology, or agronomy.
As we related in 1999 and expounded upon in our edited volume Thermal Remote
Sensing in Land Surface Processes (Quattrochi and Luvall, 2004), we foresaw that the
application of TIR remote sensing data to landscape ecological studies has been
limited for three primary reasons:
1. TIR data are little understood from both a theoretical and applications perspective within the landscape ecological community.
2. TIR data are perceived as being difficult to obtain and work with to those
researchers who are uninitiated to the characteristics and attributes of these data
in landscape ecological research.
3. The spatial resolution of TIR data, primarily from satellite data, is viewed as
being too coarse for landscape ecological research, and calibration of these data
for deriving measurements of landscape thermal energy fluxes is seen as being
problematic.
Given the increase from 1999 (and even from 2004 when our book was published)
in the TIR literature that has been published, these three issues have been considerably
mitigated but not entirely mollified. It, therefore, is still useful to examine examples of
the literature that have been published post-1999 to provide further evidence and
review of how TIR data has been applied to landscape ecological and land processes
research. As was described in our article and book, there are two fundamental ways
that TIR data can contribute to an improved understanding of landscape processes: (1)
through the measurement of surface temperatures as related to specific landscape and
biophysical components and (2) through relating surface temperature with energy
fluxes for specific phenomena or processes. This is not an exhaustive review; we wish
only to provide further credence using selected studies taken from the literature that
highlight and support the utility of TIR data to quantify and model land surface
INTRODUCTION
35