Retrieving Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence from Hyperspectral Data with TanSat Satellite.

A series of algorithms for satellite retrievals of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) have been developed and applied to different sensors. However, research on SIF retrieval using hyperspectral data is performed in narrow spectral windows, assuming that SIF remains constant. In this paper, based on the singular vector decomposition (SVD) technique, we present an approach for retrieving SIF, which can be applied to remotely sensed data with ultra-high spectral resolution and in a broad spectral window without assuming that the SIF remains constant. The idea is to combine the first singular vector, the pivotal information of the non-fluorescence spectrum, with the low-frequency contribution of the atmosphere, plus a linear combination of the remaining singular vectors to express the non-fluorescence spectrum. Subject to instrument settings, the retrieval was performed within a spectral window of approximately 7 nm that contained only Fraunhofer lines. In our retrieval, hyperspectral data of the O2-A band from the first Chinese carbon dioxide observation satellite (TanSat) was used. The Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) was introduced to self-adaptively determine the number of free parameters and reduce retrieval noise. SIF retrievals were compared with TanSat SIF and OCO-2 SIF. The results showed good consistency and rationality. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to verify the performance of this approach. To summarize, the approach would provide more possibilities for retrieving SIF from hyperspectral data.

Utility and Safety of a Novel Fully Covered Metal Stent in Unresectable Distal Malignant Biliary Obstruction.

BACKGROUND: Self-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) are widely used in patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction. A SEMS that can avoid occlusion as much as possible is desirable. AIMS: The aim of this multicenter single-arm prospective study was to assess the clinical effectiveness and safety of a novel fully covered braided SEMS. METHODS: We enrolled consecutive patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction between February 2016 and November 2017 at ten tertiary-care medical centers. RESULTS: We included 79 patients with a median age of 76 years; 47 (59.5%) patients were men. The technical and clinical success rate was 98.7% and 93.6%, respectively. Recurrent biliary obstruction occurred in 14 patients (17.9%); stent ingrowth, overgrowth, migration, and other occurred in five (6.4%), four (5.1%), four (5.1%), and one (1.3%) patients, respectively. All reinterventions in patients with recurrent biliary obstruction were successful via the transpapillary approach. Adverse events occurred in 15 patients (19.2%); cholangitis, pancreatitis, and others occurred in ten (12.8%), three (3.8%), and two (2.6%) patients, respectively. The stent patency probability at 6 months was 48.5%. Median time to stent patency was 171 days, median time to recurrent biliary obstruction was 536 days, and median survival time was 195 days. CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed the utility and safety of a novel fully covered braided SEMS with low axial force and high radial force in patients with malignance biliary obstruction. This novel SEMS is recommended in patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction.

An Improved Linear Spectral Emissivity Constraint Method for Temperature and Emissivity Separation Using Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared Data.

The linear spectral emissivity constraint (LSEC) method has been proposed to separate temperature and emissivity in hyperspectral thermal infrared data with an assumption that land surface emissivity (LSE) can be described by an equal interval piecewise linear function. This paper combines a pre-estimate shape method with the LSEC method to provide an initial-shape estimation of LSE which will create a new piecewise scheme for land surface temperature (LST) and LSE separation. This new scheme is designated as the pre-estimate shape (PES)-LSEC method. Comparisons with the LSEC method using simulated data sets show that the PES-LSEC method has better performance in terms of accuracy for both LSE and LST. With an at-ground error of 0.5 K, the root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of LST and LSE are 0.07 K and 0.0045, respectively, and with the scale factor of moisture profile 0.8 and 1.2, the RMSEs of LST are 1.11 K and 1.14 K, respectively. The RMSEs of LSE in each channel are mostly below 0.02 and 0.04, respectively, which are better than for the LSEC method. In situ experimental data are adopted to validate our method: The results show that RMSE of LST is 0.9 K and the mean value of LSE accuracy is 0.01. The PES-LSEC method with fewer segments achieves better accuracy than that of LSEC and preserves most of the crest and trough information of emissivity.

Hyperspectral Image Classification for Land Cover Based on an Improved Interval Type-II Fuzzy C-Means Approach.

Few studies have examined hyperspectral remote-sensing image classification with type-II fuzzy sets. This paper addresses image classification based on a hyperspectral remote-sensing technique using an improved interval type-II fuzzy c-means (IT2FCM*) approach. In this study, in contrast to other traditional fuzzy c-means-based approaches, the IT2FCM* algorithm considers the ranking of interval numbers and the spectral uncertainty. The classification results based on a hyperspectral dataset using the FCM, IT2FCM, and the proposed improved IT2FCM* algorithms show that the IT2FCM* method plays the best performance according to the clustering accuracy. In this paper, in order to validate and demonstrate the separability of the IT2FCM*, four type-I fuzzy validity indexes are employed, and a comparative analysis of these fuzzy validity indexes also applied in FCM and IT2FCM methods are made. These four indexes are also applied into different spatial and spectral resolution datasets to analyze the effects of spectral and spatial scaling factors on the separability of FCM, IT2FCM, and IT2FCM* methods. The results of these validity indexes from the hyperspectral datasets show that the improved IT2FCM* algorithm have the best values among these three algorithms in general. The results demonstrate that the IT2FCM* exhibits good performance in hyperspectral remote-sensing image classification because of its ability to handle hyperspectral uncertainty.

[A new aurone with anti-inflammatory activity from Cleistocalyx operculatus flower buds].

A new compound(Z)-6-hydroxy-4-methoxy-5,7-dimethylaurone was isolated from Cleistocalyx operculatus flower buds. Its structure was identified by spectroscopic data including MS, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR HSQC and HMBC. A known compound, 2',4'-dihydroxy-6'-methoxy-3'5'-dimethylchalcone (DMC), was also isolated and identified,and used as material to synthesize (Z)-6-hydroxy-4-methoxy-5,7-dimethylaurone.Anti-inflammatory activities of the two compounds were tested in vitro. The results showed that (Z)-6-hydroxy-4-methoxy-5,7-dimethylaurone possesses much stronger PGE2 inhibitory activity (IC50 6.12 nmol·L⁻¹) than the positive control ibuprofen （68.66 nmol·L⁻¹ï¼‰.

Atmospheric correction for retrieving ground brightness temperature at commonly-used passive microwave frequencies.

An analysis of the atmospheric impact on ground brightness temperature (Tg) is performed for numerous land surface types at commonly-used frequencies (i.e., 1.4 GHz, 6.93 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz, 23.8 GHz, 36.5 GHz and 89.0 GHz). The results indicate that the atmosphere has a negligible impact on Tg at 1.4 GHz for land surfaces with emissivities greater than 0.7, at 6.93 GHz for land surfaces with emissivities greater than 0.8, and at 10.65 GHz for land surfaces with emissivities greater than 0.9 if a root mean square error (RMSE) less than 1 K is desired. To remove the atmospheric effect on Tg, a generalized atmospheric correction method is proposed by parameterizing the atmospheric transmittance τ and upwelling atmospheric brightness temperature Tba↑. Better accuracies with Tg RMSEs less than 1 K are achieved at 1.4 GHz, 6.93 GHz, 10.65 GHz, 18.7 GHz and 36.5 GHz, and worse accuracies with RMSEs of 1.34 K and 4.35 K are obtained at 23.8 GHz and 89.0 GHz, respectively. Additionally, a simplified atmospheric correction method is developed when lacking sufficient input data to perform the generalized atmospheric correction method, and an emissivity-based atmospheric correction method is presented when the emissivity is known. Consequently, an appropriate atmospheric correction method can be selected based on the available data, frequency and required accuracy. Furthermore, this study provides a method to estimate τ and Tba↑ of different frequencies using the atmospheric parameters (total water vapor content in observation direction Lwv, total cloud liquid water content Lclw and mean temperature of cloud Tclw), which is important for simultaneously determining the land surface parameters using multi-frequency passive microwave satellite data.

New method to estimate surface upwelling long-wave radiation from MODIS cloud-free data.

As an important component in the surface radiation budget, surface upwelling longwave radiation (SULR) is an outcome of the land surface energy exchange and mainly represents the capability of thermal radiation from the surface of the Earth. Existing satellite-derived SULR products are too coarse to support high-resolution numerical models, and their accuracy needs to be improved. In this study, an equivalent temperature is introduced through which a "split-window" atmospheric correction algorithm is developed for MODIS data to estimate the instantaneous clear-sky SULR. It is a simple and feasible method that is particularly applicable to MODIS data to acquire relatively high precision SULR under clear skies from which qualified water vapor contents (WVC) and thermal channel brightness temperatures are available. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) are less than 13 W/m2 for all WVC sub-ranges with the viewing zenith angle (VZA) less than 30°, or for all sub-ranges with the VZA less than 60° and the WVC less than 3.5 g/cm2. Also, applications and comparisons with the LST-emissivity method are made by using ground measurements which are collected from the network of surface radiation budget network data (SURFRAD) at the moment of MODIS overpass. Results show that the proposed model has high computational efficiency to estimate SULR from MODIS cloud-free data.

Retrieving Land Surface Temperature from Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared Data Using a Multi-Channel Method.

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key parameter in climate systems. The methods for retrieving LST from hyperspectral thermal infrared data either require accurate atmospheric profile data or require thousands of continuous channels. We aim to retrieve LST for natural land surfaces from hyperspectral thermal infrared data using an adapted multi-channel method taking Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) properly into consideration. In the adapted method, LST can be retrieved by a linear function of 36 brightness temperatures at Top of Atmosphere (TOA) using channels where LSE has high values. We evaluated the adapted method using simulation data at nadir and satellite data near nadir. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the LST retrieved from the simulation data is 0.90 K. Compared with an LST product from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) on Meteosat, the error in the LST retrieved from the Infared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) is approximately 1.6 K. The adapted method can be used for the near-real-time production of an LST product and to provide the physical method to simultaneously retrieve atmospheric profiles, LST, and LSE with a first-guess LST value. The limitations of the adapted method are that it requires the minimum LSE in the spectral interval of 800-950 cm(-1) larger than 0.95 and it has not been extended for off-nadir measurements.

Non-Contact Measurement of the Spectral Emissivity through Active/Passive Synergy of CO2 Laser at 10.6 µm and 102F FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) Spectrometer.

In the inversion of land surface temperature (LST) from satellite data, obtaining the information on land surface emissivity is most challenging. How to solve both the emissivity and the LST from the underdetermined equations for thermal infrared radiation is a hot research topic related to quantitative thermal infrared remote sensing. The academic research and practical applications based on the temperature-emissivity retrieval algorithms show that directly measuring the emissivity of objects at a fixed thermal infrared waveband is an important way to close the underdetermined equations for thermal infrared radiation. Based on the prior research results of both the authors and others, this paper proposes a new approach of obtaining the spectral emissivity of the object at 8-14 µm with a single-band CO2 laser at 10.6 µm and a 102F FTIR spectrometer. Through experiments, the spectral emissivity of several key samples, including aluminum plate, iron plate, copper plate, marble plate, rubber sheet, and paper board, at 8-14 µm is obtained, and the measured data are basically consistent with the hemispherical emissivity measurement by a Nicolet iS10 FTIR spectrometer for the same objects. For the rough surface of materials, such as marble and rusty iron, the RMSE of emissivity is below 0.05. The differences in the field of view angle and in the measuring direction between the Nicolet FTIR method and the method proposed in the paper, and the heterogeneity in the degree of oxidation, polishing and composition of the samples, are the main reasons for the differences of the emissivities between the two methods.

Investigation of Atmospheric Effects on Retrieval of Sun-Induced Fluorescence Using Hyperspectral Imagery.

Significant research progress has recently been made in estimating fluorescence in the oxygen absorption bands, however, quantitative retrieval of fluorescence data is still affected by factors such as atmospheric effects. In this paper, top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance is generated by the MODTRAN 4 and SCOPE models. Based on simulated data, sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the sensitivities of four indicators-depth_absorption_band, depth_nofs-depth_withfs, radiance and Fs/radiance-to atmospheric parameters (sun zenith angle (SZA), sensor height, elevation, visibility (VIS) and water content) in the oxygen absorption bands. The results indicate that the SZA and sensor height are the most sensitive parameters and that variations in these two parameters result in large variations calculated as the variation value/the base value in the oxygen absorption depth in the O2-A and O2-B bands (111.4% and 77.1% in the O2-A band; and 27.5% and 32.6% in the O2-B band, respectively). A comparison of fluorescence retrieval using three methods (Damm method, Braun method and DOAS) and SCOPE Fs indicates that the Damm method yields good results and that atmospheric correction can improve the accuracy of fluorescence retrieval. Damm method is the improved 3FLD method but considering atmospheric effects. Finally, hyperspectral airborne images combined with other parameters (SZA, VIS and water content) are exploited to estimate fluorescence using the Damm method and 3FLD method. The retrieval fluorescence is compared with the field measured fluorescence, yielding good results (R² = 0.91 for Damm vs. SCOPE SIF; R² = 0.65 for 3FLD vs. SCOPE SIF). Five types of vegetation, including ailanthus, elm, mountain peach, willow and Chinese ash, exhibit consistent associations between the retrieved fluorescence and field measured fluorescence.

Performance evaluation of four directional emissivity analytical models with thermal SAIL model and airborne images.

Land surface emissivity is a crucial parameter in the surface status monitoring. This study aims at the evaluation of four directional emissivity models, including two bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) models and two gap-frequency-based models. Results showed that the kernel-driven BRDF model could well represent directional emissivity with an error less than 0.002, and was consequently used to retrieve emissivity with an accuracy of about 0.012 from an airborne multi-angular thermal infrared data set. Furthermore, we updated the cavity effect factor relating to multiple scattering inside canopy, which improved the performance of the gap-frequency-based models.

Circulating irisin is lower in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Irisin is a newly identified myokine. Several studies have reported irisin concentrations in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but because of smaller sample sizes, the data from previous reports showed a wide range in serum/plasma irisin. Therefore, the present investigation is designed to summarize a precise confidence interval of circulating irisin in participants with GDM from a cross-sectional study in Chinese population and a meta-analysis for validation. Serum irisin was tested in patients with GDM and healthy controls (newly diagnosed cases: 61 and matched controls: 61) in the cross-sectional study. The two groups of participants were matched for age and pregnancy duration. Furthermore, we did a comprehensive meta-analysis to confirm whether serum/plasma irisin differs between participants with GDM and controls. Articles reported "circulating irisin and GDM" in Medline, PubMed, and EMBase were obtained, with the key word "myokine" or "irisin". The comparison was analyzed by Review Manager 5.2. In the cross-sectional investigation, serum irisin showed a significant lower level in the GDM patients, compared with that in the control group. In the meta-analysis study, the summarized results of the present 5 studies in which 632 participants were included indicated that there was a lower level irisin of -58.68 ng/mL [95% confidence interval (CI)](-113.42, -3.93, P=0.04) in GDM patients than in the control group. The present cross-sectional investigation and meta-analysis is the first to show significant lower circulating irisin in subjects with GDM.

Daytime Land Surface Temperature Extraction from MODIS Thermal Infrared Data under Cirrus Clouds.

Simulated data showed that cirrus clouds could lead to a maximum land surface temperature (LST) retrieval error of 11.0 K when using the generalized split-window (GSW) algorithm with a cirrus optical depth (COD) at 0.55 µm of 0.4 and in nadir view. A correction term in the COD linear function was added to the GSW algorithm to extend the GSW algorithm to cirrus cloudy conditions. The COD was acquired by a look up table of the isolated cirrus bidirectional reflectance at 0.55 µm. Additionally, the slope k of the linear function was expressed as a multiple linear model of the top of the atmospheric brightness temperatures of MODIS channels 31-34 and as the difference between split-window channel emissivities. The simulated data showed that the LST error could be reduced from 11.0 to 2.2 K. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the total errors from all the uncertainties of input parameters, extension algorithm accuracy, and GSW algorithm accuracy were less than 2.5 K in nadir view. Finally, the Great Lakes surface water temperatures measured by buoys showed that the retrieval accuracy of the GSW algorithm was improved by at least 1.5 K using the proposed extension algorithm for cirrus skies.

A Multi-Channel Method for Retrieving Surface Temperature for High-Emissivity Surfaces from Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared Images.

The surface temperature (ST) of high-emissivity surfaces is an important parameter in climate systems. The empirical methods for retrieving ST for high-emissivity surfaces from hyperspectral thermal infrared (HypTIR) images require spectrally continuous channel data. This paper aims to develop a multi-channel method for retrieving ST for high-emissivity surfaces from space-borne HypTIR data. With an assumption of land surface emissivity (LSE) of 1, ST is proposed as a function of 10 brightness temperatures measured at the top of atmosphere by a radiometer having a spectral interval of 800-1200 cm(-1) and a spectral sampling frequency of 0.25 cm(-1). We have analyzed the sensitivity of the proposed method to spectral sampling frequency and instrumental noise, and evaluated the proposed method using satellite data. The results indicated that the parameters in the developed function are dependent on the spectral sampling frequency and that ST of high-emissivity surfaces can be accurately retrieved by the proposed method if appropriate values are used for each spectral sampling frequency. The results also showed that the accuracy of the retrieved ST is of the order of magnitude of the instrumental noise and that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the ST retrieved from satellite data is 0.43 K in comparison with the AVHRR SST product.

Determination of optimum viewing angles for the angular normalization of land surface temperature over vegetated surface.

Multi-angular observation of land surface thermal radiation is considered to be a promising method of performing the angular normalization of land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from remote sensing data. This paper focuses on an investigation of the minimum requirements of viewing angles to perform such normalizations on LST. The normally kernel-driven bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) is first extended to the thermal infrared (TIR) domain as TIR-BRDF model, and its uncertainty is shown to be less than 0.3 K when used to fit the hemispheric directional thermal radiation. A local optimum three-angle combination is found and verified using the TIR-BRDF model based on two patterns: the single-point pattern and the linear-array pattern. The TIR-BRDF is applied to an airborne multi-angular dataset to retrieve LST at nadir (Te-nadir) from different viewing directions, and the results show that this model can obtain reliable Te-nadir from 3 to 4 directional observations with large angle intervals, thus corresponding to large temperature angular variations. The Te-nadir is generally larger than temperature of the slant direction, with a difference of approximately 0.5~2.0 K for vegetated pixels and up to several Kelvins for non-vegetated pixels. The findings of this paper will facilitate the future development of multi-angular thermal infrared sensors.

[Research on the Thermal Infrared Polarization Properties of Fresh Snow].

Snow can directly affect the surface energy balance and climate change and has a significant impact on human life and production. It is therefore of great significance to study the fresh snow emission spectroscopy properties by using the thermal infrared Polarization technique. This can provide a basis for quantitative thermal infrared remote sensing monitoring of snow as well as a deeper understanding of global warming and appropriate countermeasures. This paper focuses on the investigation of the thermal infrared polarization properties of the fresh snow. The results show that the thermal emissive polarization properties of fresh snow depend significantly on the wavelengths (channels) and view angles used to measure them. Four channels are considered in this study, their spectral response ranges are 8-14 microm for channel 1 (CH1), 11.5-12.5 microm for channel 2 (CH2), 10.3-11.5 microm for channel 3 (CH) and 8.2-9.2 microm for channel 4 (CH4). The snow polarized radiance (L) and its polarized brightness temperature (T) manifest as L(CH1) >L(CH3) > L(CH4) > L(CH2) and T(CH4) > T(CH1) > T(CH2) > TCH3, respectively, while the degree of polarization (P) manifests as P0 > P30 > P40 > P20 > P0 > P50 where the subscript of P denotes the view angle. The maximum of both L and T occurs at the view angle of 50 degree and polarization angle of 90 degree while their minimum appears at the view angle of 30 degree and polarization angle of 75 degree for each channel. In addition, the results show that: CH3 is more appropriate for better investigation of the emissive polarization properties of snow. Linear relationship is found between the fresh snow polarized T and the polarization angle with the coefficient of determination larger than 0.77 for all four channels. The polarized brightness temperature of the fresh snow is found to be increased about 0.003 K per polarization angle within 0-135 degree. The degree of polarization of snow is almost independent of the channels we used (CH1 to CH4). The snow emissive polarization is isotropic and the relative azimuth view angle has no significant impact on the snow emissive polarization properties. The impact of the polarization angle may be neglected if the investigation of the relative azimuth view angle on the fresh snow thermal emissive polarization is conducted. The difference of the fresh snow emissive polarization properties mainly comes from the snow surface roughness and structure.

Noise evaluation of early images for Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager.

This study performed an on-orbit evaluation of noise level for the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard Landsat 8 using early images over ground homogeneous sites. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) were higher than 160 of OLI nine bands at typical radiance level, while the noise equivalent radiance difference (NE∆L) and the noise equivalent reflectance difference (NE∆ρ) were respectively lower than 0.8 W/m(2)/µm/sr and 0.002. Compared to pre-launch predictions, the on-orbit low noise and high SNR almost satisfied requirements for OLI bands, and can provide a prior knowledge for uncertainty analysis of OLI images in monitoring land surface, oceanic, and atmospheric status.

[Effect of oligosaccharide esters and polygalaxanthone Ill from Polygala tenuifolia willd towards cytochrome P450].

Five compounds (tenuifoliside C, tenuifoliside D, telephiose A, telephiose C and polygalaxanthone III) from polygala tenuifolia wild were incubated together with CYP probe substrate in human liver microsomes to investigate the inhibitory effect towards CYP450 enzyme. Phenacetin (CYP1A2), coumarin (CYP2A6), paclitaxel (CYP2C8), diclofenac (CYP2C9), S-mepheriytoin (CYP2C19), dextromethorphan (CYP2D6), chlorzoxazone (CYP2E1), midazolam (CYP3A) were selected as the isoforfn specific substrate. And the formation of paracetamol, 7-hydroxycoumarin, 6alpha-hydroxy paclitaxel, 4'-hydroxydiclofenac, dextrorphan, 6-hydroxychlorzoxazone, 1'-hydroxymidazolam, 4'-hydroxymephenytoin were detected respectively to measure the effect towards CYP450 by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The result shows that five compounds from polygala tenuifolia willd significantly inhibit chlorzoxazone 6-hydroxylation catalyzed by CYP2E1, while showed no effect towards CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP3A. And IC50 value was 38.73, 54.14, 61.77, 62.22, 50.56 micromol x L(-1), respectively.

Intra-arterial microguidewire electrocoagulation to treat intracranial vascular diseases.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the therapeutic effect of intra-arterial microguidewire electrocoagulation on intracranial vascular diseases. METHODS: Data from 10 patients with cerebral aneurysms between May 2018 and September 2022 were analysed. Patients were treated with endovascular coil embolisation and microguidewire electrocoagulation. XperCT scans were conducted to identify new intracranial haemorrhage, infarction and hydrocephalus. Follow-up examinations were conducted 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge. RESULTS: After the patients received electrocoagulation for different durations, Raymond Grade 1 embolisation was achieved in all 10 patients. No complications, such as haemorrhage, infarction or hydrocephalus, were found during or after surgery. Ten patients were followed up for 6-12 months, and none had any symptoms or new neurological dysfunction 1 month after their operation. Among them, nine were followed up for 12 months, and digital subtraction angiography showed no recurrence of aneurysms or occlusion of parent arteries. CONCLUSION: Intra-arterial microguidewire electrocoagulation can be used as a supplementary treatment for cerebral aneurysms. In cases of incomplete lesion embolisation and cases where tamponade treatment cannot continue, immediate thrombosis may occur. Thus, intra-arterial microguidewire electrocoagulation can help achieve patients' treatment goals.

Atmospheric corrections of passive microwave data for estimating land surface temperature.

Quantitative analysis of the atmospheric effects on observations made by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) has been performed. The differences between observed brightness temperatures at the top of the atmosphere and at the bottom of the atmosphere were analyzed using a database of simulated observations, which were configured to replicate AMSR-E data. The differences between observed brightness temperatures at the top of the atmosphere and land surface-emitted brightness temperatures were also computed. Quantitative results show that the atmosphere has different effects on brightness temperatures in different AMSR-E channels. Atmospheric effects can be neglected at 6.925 and 10.65 GHz, when the standard deviation is less than 1 K. However, at other frequencies and polarizations, atmospheric effects on observations should not be neglected. An atmospheric correction algorithm was developed at 18.7 GHz vertical polarization, based on the classic split-window algorithm used in thermal remote sensing. Land surface emission can be estimated with RMSE = 0.99 K using the proposed method. Using the known land surface emissivity, Land Surface Temperature (LST) can be retrieved. The RMSE of retrieved LST is 1.17 K using the simulated data.