Radiant Temperatures of Sparse Plant Canopies and Soil Using IR Thernometry

Measurement of plant temperature can be useful in detectingdisease and moisture stresses and in estimating transpiration.Also, measurements of surface soil temperature are relevant for evaluatingsurface soil energy budgets. For incomplete plant cover, it isdifficult to accurately measure plant and/or soil temperatures with infraredthermometry (IRT) because of background radiation interferencefrom scene components other than the one of interest. The purposeof this study was to use a simple deterministic model based uponearlier models by Kimes and by Heilman et al. to infer plant and soilcomponent temperatures within scenes viewed by a portable IRT, andanalyze sensitivities of the component temperatures to the various inpurs.