Emissivity and Remote Sensing

Goals/Outcomes

1. Explain the emissivity at the molecular level.
2. Explain how emissivity is related to absorptivity.
3. Relate physics concepts of radiation to the greenhouse effect.
4. Use a laser infrared sensor to measure the emissivity of various materials and compare to emissivity values published in the literature.
5. Complete the lab report questions.
6. Study thermal satellite images and propose explanations for observations that are made.

Teacher Preparation

1. Preview the teacher version of the lab - lavallie_emissivity_rs_teacher.doc (5.6 MB) or lavallie_emissivity_rs_teacher.pdf (7.6 MB)
2. Lab equipment
• Thermal (infrared) sensor
• Ring stand
• Clamps to support the sensor and the test material
• Test materials from the list in the lab guide
3. Locate thermal satellite imagery pertinent to your locale. Possible sites include:
• Naturalhazards.nasa.gov
• Earthobservatory.nasa.gov
• Science.nasa.gov
• www.geodata.gov
• nationalmap.gov
• seamless.usgs.gov
• ned.usgs.gov
• soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov
• www.sdgs.usd.edu/
• county-map.digital-topo-maps.com
4. Make copies of the student lab guide - lavallie_emissivity_rs_student.doc (5.6 MB) or lavallie_emissivity_rs_student.pdf (7.6 MB)

Activities

1. Reading, lecture, and/or discussion of introductory material to illustrate the important concepts.
2. Follow the procedure on the lab guide in setting up the apparatus to measure the emissivity of various materials.
3. Complete the “Questions” section of the student guide.
4. Compare thermal images from two different time periods and answer the accompanying questions
5. Locate a pair of thermal images. Describe the differences and list possible causes for the differences.

Assessment

Instructors may want to collect information on any or all of the following:

• Ability to answer questions about key concepts in the reading
• Lab data collection
• Lab analysis questions