Surface Emissivities in A Boreal Forest During Snowmelt

Abstract

Snow surface emissivity is shown to be approximately 0.94 and to differ between snow surfaces. Emissivity of a spruce bough is approximately 0.96. When the surface longwave balance is used to compute surface temperature or radiative characteristics, consideration must be given to the reflected component, or an error proportional to Ll and (1-e) will result. The data show that leaf surfaces are consistently and considerably elevated above ambient air temperature.