The land surface temperature (Ts) has been object of several studies. In this work the main reference is the brightness temperature (Tb), obtained from the digital number (ND) and converted to monochromatic radiance of the TM - Landsat 5 thermal band. The correct determination of Ts is based on brightness temperature, the emissivity of each pixel, the mean atmospheric air temperature and the atmosphere transmittance. In this paper it is presented an atmospheric correction algorithm of the brightness temperature. A TM - Landsat 5 image, obtained on December 10, 2000, covering irrigated areas of Petrolina, PE (09º24'S; 40º30'W; 376 m) and its neighborhoods, and a radiossonde obtained in the same area were used to test the algorithm. According to the results, there was not a great difference between the Ts atmospheric corrected with the algorithm from that only corrected for emissivity. On the other hand, the corrected Ts and Tb differences were in general approximately equal to 5ºC.
Atmospheric correction; brightness temperature; spectral radiance; atmospheric transmissivity
