IT. INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION
The GSFC Mark-II Three Band-Held Radiometer consists of two modules, which are
connected by an electrical cable (see Fig.1). The hand held module contains
three channels, which approximate to Landsat 4's thematic mapper bands TM3 i;
(0.63-0.69 pm), TM4 (0.76-0.90 um) and TM5 (1.55-1.75 um). The read-out module
contains the power supply, 3 liquid crystal displays, the digitizer, display
driver circuits, range controls, battery check, a "sample and hold" switch, and
"off-on" switch.. Radiometric accuracy is 1 part in 1,000 (^-10 bits) with a
total range of 1, 000,000 (20 bits). This represents a dynamical range from
1 milliwatt/m? to 1 kilowatt/m2 within the optical bandpass. Radiometric
sampling occurs at the rate of 4 times per second. For detailed description
and operation of the radiometer, see Tucker et al (1980)
III. FIELD MEASUREMENTS
In the field operation of the radiometer, the hand-held module.is mounted ôn a
holder, which is attached to the top of a 3 meter stainless steel pole. A rectan-
gular plate with 5 holes on it is fixed above the ground by the way of a.
sharpened stainless pipe, which is attached with the plate. The five holes on
the plate will make the sensor making the angles of 0°, - 22.59, and t Are with
respect to the zenith, when the Hole at the other end of the three meter pole
matches to those five holes. The whole set-up is shown in Fig. 2a and 2b.
A 2m x 2m aluminum plate coated by "Halon" power (trade name for. powdered
fluorocarbon) is used for calibration purpose. Such kind of calibration board
has been used in many occasions with great success (see Mclean 19793. deerit is
close to a lambertian surface with high reflectivity. With no preyious experien-
ce, our calibration board is less satisfactory. The relative variations is
. reflectance, looking in different angles accounts for 109 - 15%, depending on
the wavelength.
Four test sites of the rice paddy are located just outside of the campus. Imme-
diatly next to the test sites, there is a campus meteorological obseryatory,
where meteorological data are routinely taken. In a typical field operation, two
assistants, one handling the pole with sensor while the other reading the radio-
meter read out, take 5 measurements over the calibration board, corresponding
to five different looking angles. They, then, move the wholé.set-up.to the
near-by test sites and take 5 measurements for each of the test sites.
Normally, it takes about one hour to take a whole set of. data. Fig. 3 illustra-
tes a typical data sheet for a given day of measurements. The time and the
major meteorological data are shown on the top-left portion of the data sheet.
The relative orientation of the four test sites is indicated on the extreme
left side. Fl, F2, Z, B2 and B1 represent 5 different view angles, corresponding
to 45°, 22.5°, 0°, -22.5° and -45° with respect to the sun. (The angle is :
positive when the sun and the sensor are on each side of the zenith). For a
given view angle at a specific site, 3 measurements are taken. Test site No.Q
represents the calibration board. The reflectance ratio is computed by diyiding
“ the average of 3 measurements over that taken at the calibration board.
We started taking our field measürements on May 17, 1982, which was about 5Qdays
after the planting of the first crop season. Our data ended on August 20, 1982,
which was about ten days after the planting of the second Crop season. Because
of weather condition, we took 16 clear-day over the whole period.
IV. EXPERI
A casual ri
of measurer
referred ii
(19703. "Tt
by the scei
As mention:
we take thi
for comput
Fig. 4 sho
as functioi
‘May 17, 19:
August 13 :
crop seaso
a general :
curves, wh
band. The
changes fo
stage. The
The ratios
and fluctu
. variations
To see how
we depict
of 130 day
small that
wet soil.
basically
seeding gr
getting doi
brown grai
TM3 is chi
band. Thus
what we wo
Admittely,
vegatative
those take
system con
meter are
one radiom
designed d
automatica
data taken
October 30
for 0° vie
correspond
between ba
that the v
in general
and furthe
To further
we plot th
between th