CEGE046 / GEOG3051

Principles & Practice of Remote Sensing (PPRS)

2: Radiation (i)

Dr. Mathias (Mat) Disney

UCL Geography
Office: 113, Pearson Building
Tel: 7679 0592
Email: [email protected]
www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~mdisney
 Outline: lecture 2 & 3
•  Core principles of electromagnetic radiation (EMR)
–  solar radiation
–  blackbody concept and radiation laws
•  EMR and remote sensing
–  wave and particle models of radiation
–  regions of EM spectrum
–  radiation geometry, terms, units
–  interaction with atmosphere
–  interaction with surface
•  Measurement of radiation

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 Aims
•  Conceptual basis for understanding EMR
•  Terms, units, definitions
•  Provide basis for understanding type of information that
can be (usefully) retrieved via Earth observation (EO)
•  Why we choose given regions of the EM spectrum in
which to make measurements

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Remote sensing process: recap

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 Remote sensing process: recap
•  Note various paths
–  Source to sensor direct?
–  Source to surface to sensor
–  Sensor can also be source
•  RADAR, LiDAR, SONAR
•  i.e. “active” remote sensing
•  Reflected and emitted components
–  What do these mean?
•  Several components of final signal captured at sensor

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Energy transport
•  Conduction
–  transfer of molecular kinetic (motion) energy due to contact
–  heat energy moves from T1 to T2 where T1 > T2
•  Convection
–  movement of hot material from one place to another
–  e.g. Hot air rises
•  Radiation
–  results whenever an electrical charge is accelerated
–  propagates via EM waves, through vacuum & over long distances
hence of interest for remote sensing

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 Electromagnetic radiation: wave model

• James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

• Wave model of EM energy
• Unified theories of electricity and magnetism (via Newton,
Faraday, Kelvin, Ampère etc.)
• Oscillating electric charge produces magnetic field (and
vice versa)
• Can be described by 4 simple (ish) differential equations
• Calculated speed of EM wave in a vacuum

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 Electromagnetic radiation

• EM wave is
• Electric field (E)
perpendicular to
magnetic field (M)
• Travels at velocity, c
(3x108 ms-1, in a
vacuum)

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 Wave: terms
• All waves characterised
by:
• Wavelength, λ (m)
• Amplitude, a (m)
• Velocity, v (m/s)
• Frequency, f (s-1 or Hz)
• Sometimes period, T
(time for one oscillation
i.e. 1/f)

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 Wave: terms
• Velocity, frequency and wavelength related by

• f proportional to 1/λ (constant of proportionality is

wave velocity, v i.e.

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Wave: terms

• Note angles in radians (rad)

• 360° = 2π rad, so 1 rad = 360/2π = 57.3°
• Rad to deg. (*180/π) and deg. to rad (* π/180)
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 Maxwell’s Equations

• 4 simple (ish) equations relating

vector electric (E) and vector
magnetic fields (B)
• ε0 is permittivity of free space
•  µ0 is permeability of free space

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 Maxwell’s Equations
1. Gauss’ law for electricity: the electric flux out of any
closed surface is proportional to the total charge
enclosed within the surface
2. Gauss’ law for magnetism: the net magnetic flux out
of any closed surface is zero (i.e. magnetic monopoles
do not exist)

3. Faraday’s Law of Induction: line integral of electric field

around a closed loop is equal to negative of rate of change
of magnetic flux through area enclosed by the loop.

4. Ampere’s Law: for a static electric field, the line integral of

the magnetic field around a closed loop is proportional to the
electric current flowing through the loop.

Note: ∇• is ‘divergence’ operator and ∇x is ‘curl’ operator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations
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 EM Spectrum
• EM Spectrum
• Continuous range of EM radiation
• From very short wavelengths (<300x10-9m)
• high energy
• To very long wavelengths (cm, m, km)
• low energy
• Energy is related to wavelength (and hence frequency)

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 Units
• EM wavelength λ is m, but various prefixes
• cm (10-2m)
• mm (10-3m)
• micron or micrometer, µm (10-6m)
• Angstrom, Å (10-8m, used by astronomers mainly)
• nanometer, nm (10-9)
• f is waves/second or Hertz (Hz)

• NB can also use wavenumber, k = 1/λ i.e. m-1

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•  Energy radiated from sun (or active sensor)
•  Energy ∝ 1/wavelength (1/λ)
–  shorter λ (higher f) == higher energy
–  longer λ (lower f) == lower energy
from http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Intro/Part2_4.html

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 EM Spectrum

• We will see how energy is related to frequency, f (and hence inversely proportional
to wavelength, λ)
• When radiation passes from one medium to another, speed of light (c) and λ change,
hence f stays the same

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Electromagnetic spectrum: visible

•  Visible part - very small part

–  from visible blue (shorter λ)
–  to visible red (longer λ)
–  ~0.4 to ~0.7µm
Violet: 0.4 - 0.446 µm
Blue: 0.446 - 0.500 µm
Green: 0.500 - 0.578 µm
Yellow: 0.578 - 0.592 µm
Orange: 0.592 - 0.620 µm
Red: 0.620 - 0.7 µm

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Electromagnetic spectrum: IR
•  Longer wavelengths (sub-mm)
•  Lower energy than visible
•  Arbitrary cutoff
•  IR regions covers
–  reflective (shortwave IR,
SWIR)
–  and emissive (longwave or
thermal IR, TIR)
–  region just longer than visible
known as near-IR, NIR.

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Electromagnetic spectrum: microwave

•  Longer wavelength again

–  RADAR
–  mm to cm
–  various bands used by
RADAR instruments
–  long λ so low energy,
hence need to use own
energy source (active
µwave)

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 Blackbody
• All objects above absolute zero (0 K or -273° C)
radiate EM energy (due to vibration of atoms)
• We can use concept of a perfect blackbody
• Absorbs and re-radiates all radiation incident upon it at
maximum possible rate per unit area (Wm-2), at each
wavelength, λ, for a given temperature T (in K)

• Energy from a blackbody?

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 Stefan-Boltzmann Law

• Total emitted radiation from a blackbody, Mλ, in Wm-2,

described by Stefan-Boltzmann Law

• Where T is temperature of the object in K; and σ = is

Stefan-Boltmann constant = 5.6697x10-8 Wm-2K-4
• So energy ∝ T4 and as T⇑ so does M
• Tsun ≈ 6000K Mλ,sun ≈ 73.5 MWm-2
• TEarth ≈ 300K M λ, Earth ≈ 460 Wm-2
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Stefan-Boltzmann Law

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 Stefan-Boltzmann Law

• Note that peak of sun’s energy around 0.5 µm

• negligible after 4-6µm
• Peak of Earth’s radiant energy around 10 µm
• negligible before ~ 4µm
• Total energy in each case is area under curve

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 Stefan-Boltzmann Law

• Generalisation of Stefan-Boltzmann Law

• radiation Φ emitted from unit area of any plane surface with
emissivity of ε (<1) can be written
•  Φ = εσTn where n is a numerical index
• For ‘grey’ surface where ε is nearly independent of λ, n =4
• When radiation emitted predominantly at λ < λm , n > 4
•  When radiation emitted predominantly at λ > λm , n < 4

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 Peak λ of emitted radiation: Wien’s Law

• Wien deduced from thermodynamic principles that

energy per unit wavelength E(λ) is function of T and λ

• At what λm is maximum radiant energy emitted?

• Comparing blackbodies at different T, note λmT is
constant, k = 2897µmK i.e. λm = k/T
• λm, sun = 0.48µm
• λm, Earth = 9.66µm
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 Wien’s Law

• AKA Wien’s
Displacement Law
• Increase
(displacement) in λm
as T reduces Increasing λ

• Straight line in log

-log space

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Particle model of radiation

• Hooke (1668) proposed wave theory of light

propagation (EMR) (Huygens, Euler, Young, Fresnel…)
• Newton (~1700) proposed corpuscular theory of
light (after al-Haytham, Avicenna ~11th C, Gassendi ~ early17th C)
• observation of light separating into spectrum

• Einstein explained photoelectric effect by

proposing photon theory of light
• Photons: individual packets (quanta) of energy
possessing energy and momentum

• Light has both wave- and particle-like properties

• Wave-particle duality
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Particle model of radiation

• EMR intimately related to atomic structure and energy

• Atom: +ve charged nucleus (protons +neutrons) & -ve charged
electrons bound in orbits
• Electron orbits are fixed at certain levels, each level corresponding to a
particular electron energy
• Change of orbit either requires energy (work done), or releases energy
• Minimum energy required to move electron up a full energy level (can’t
have shift of 1/2 an energy level)
• Once shifted to higher energy state, atom is excited, and possesses
potential energy
• Released as electron falls back to lower energy level

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Particle model of radiation

• As electron falls back, quantum of EMR (photons) emitted

• electron energy levels are unevenly spaced and characteristic of a
particular element (basis of spectroscopy)

• Bohr and Planck recognised discrete nature of transitions

• Relationship between frequency of radiation (wave theory) of
emitted photon (particle theory)

• E is energy of a quantum in Joules (J); h is Planck constant

(6.626x10-34Js) and f is frequency of radiation

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Particle model of radiation

• If we remember that velocity v = fλ and in this case v is

actually c, speed of light then

• Energy of emitted radiation is inversely proportional to λ

• longer (larger) λ == lower energy
• shorter (smaller) λ == higher energy
• Implication for remote sensing: harder to detect longer λ radiation
(thermal for e.g.) as it has lower energy

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Particle model of radiation

From: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/bohr_atom.html

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Particle model of radiation: atomic shells

http://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_orbit/orbit.htm
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Planck’s Law of blackbody radiation

• Planck was able to explain energy spectrum of blackbody

• Based on quantum theory rather than classical mechanics

• dE(λ)/dλ gives constant of Wien’s Law

• ∫E(λ) over all λ results in Stefan-Boltzmann relation
• Blackbody energy function of λ, and T

http://www.tmeg.com/esp/e_orbit/orbit.htm
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Planck’s Law
• Explains/predicts shape of blackbody curve
• Use to predict how much energy lies between given λ
• Crucial for remote sensing

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/bbrc.html#c1
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Consequences of Planck’s Law: plants

• Chlorophyll a,b absorption spectra

• Photosynthetic pigments
• Driver of (nearly) all life on Earth!
• Source of all fossil fuel
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Consequences of Planck’s Law: us

Cones: selective
sensitivity
Rods :
monochromatic
sensitivity

http://www.photo.net/photo/edscott/vis00010.htm 37
Applications of Planck’s Law

• Fractional energy from 0 to λ i.e. F0→λ? Integrate Planck function

• Note Ebλ(λ,T), emissive power of bbody at λ, is function of product
λT only, so....
Radiant energy from 0 to λ

Total radiant energy

for λ = 0 to λ = ∞

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Applications of Planck’s Law: example

• Q: what fraction of the total power radiated by a black body

at 5770 K fall, in the UV (0 < λ ≤ 0.38µm)?
• Need table of integral values of F0→λ
λT (µmK x103)
• So, λT = 0.38µm * 5770K = 2193µmK F0→λ(λT)
(dimensionless)
2 .067
• Or 2.193x103 µmK i.e. between 2 and 3 3 .273
4 .481
• Interpolate between F0→λ (2x103) and F0→λ (3x103) 5
6
.634
.738
8 .856
10 .914
12 .945
14 .963
16 .974
18 .981
20 .986

• Finally, F0→0.38 =0.193*(0.273-0.067)+0.067=0.11

• i.e. ~11% of total solar energy lies in UV between 0 and 0.38 µm

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Applications of Planck’s Law: exercise

• Show that ~38% of total energy radiated by

the sun lies in the visible region (0.38µm < λ
≤ 0.7µm) assuming that solar T = 5770K
• Hint: we already know F(0.38µm), so calculate λT (µmK x103) F0→λ(λT)
(dimensionless)
F(0.7µm) and interpolate 2 .067
3 .273
4 .481
5 .634
6 .738
8 .856
10 .914
12 .945
14 .963
16 .974
18 .981
20 .986

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Departure from BB assumption?

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 Recap
• Objects can be approximated as blackbodies
• Radiant energy ∝ T4
• EM spectrum from sun a continuum peaking at ~0.48µm
• ~39% energy between 0.38 and 0.7 in visible region

• Planck’s Law - shape of power spectrum for given T (Wm-2 µm-1)

• Integrate over all λ to get total radiant power emitted by BB per unit area
• Stefan-Boltzmann Law M = σT4 (Wm-2)

• Differentiate to get Wien’s law

• Location of λmax = k/T where k = 2898µmK

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