Abstract
The reflected near infrared radiance of rugged terrain as measured from space, includes strong atmospheric and topographic effects. The removal of such effects from satellite image data is very important in the analysis of remote mountainous forest areas. However, the radiative transfer process is much more complex for rugged terrain than for flat terrain, because the complicated local topography, such as elevation, slope and aspect, must be taken into account.
The summary of this study is as follows: 1) In this study we have developed a new analytical correction method for rugged terrain image data which allows the use of the more general Minnaert's law for the bidirectional reflection at the ground surface. In our correction model, single reflection by a target slope and multiple reflection by the mean back ground as well as diffuse reflection by the atmosphere were taken into account. 2) The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method were sucessfully demonstrated to the MOS-1 MESSR image data. 3) We found that the reflection by rugged terrain vegetation (mostly decidious forest) follows Minnaert's law, rather than Lambert's law. The appropriate values of the Minnaert constant k and mean ground albedo A for the study site were k=0.59 and A=0.56±0.06 in band 3 and k=0.63 and A=0.79±0.08 in band 4.
