The albedo is an important element in studies related to radiation and energy balances. Consequently, changes in different biomes bring major implications for human and animal comfort. Accordingly, the monitoring of the albedo by orbital images enables to identify the anthropic influence of large areas and their environmental impact. This work was developed with the objective of assessing the impact of atmospheric correction at surface albedo and the NDVI using the traditional method of SEBAL (Bastiaanssen, 2000) and atmospheric correction band to band (Allen et al., 2007b) for four Landsat 5 TM images covering Cariri mesoregion of Ceará State. The results showed decrease in the surface albedo and increase in NDVI, corrected for atmospheric effects for all sample areas. According with Student test there was significant difference between the albedo and NDVI under the two methods, significant at 0.01 level.
atmospheric correction; albedo; NDVI; Landsat 5 - TM
