The main objective of this study was to analyze comparatively the estimate of net radiation at surface (Rn) from orbital images with surface measured data as well as the components of Rn, for two different types of vegetation (pasture and forest) under tropical-humid climate. This study was conducted at Rondônia State in northwestern Brazil. To carry out the analysis using remote sensing techniques seven orbital images of MODIS sensor aboard the Aqua satellite were used for the algorithm implementation, and the measured surface data at two micrometeorological towers installed in the pasture and forest locations. The main results obtained from MODIS images show consistent maximum and minimum percentage error (PE) for Rn , 3% and 0.02% for the forest area and 10% and 0.7% for the pasture area. These results show that remote sensing is an important and effective tool in environmental and hydrological studies.
remote sensing; micrometeorology; SEBAL; net radiation
