Advances in Radiative Transfer Modeling: Applications in Natural, Urban, and Emerging Environments
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Remote Sensing".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 May 2025 | Viewed by 601
Special Issue Editors
Interests: radiative transfer modeling; differentiable radiative transfer modeling
Interests: urban studies from remote sensing; inversion/normalization
Interests: land surface temperature; thermal radiation directionality; surface upward longwave radiation
Interests: radiative transfer modelling; lidar; forestry; voxelization; ray tracing; biophysical information retrieval
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Radiative transfer models (RTMs) have advanced significantly over the past four decades. Models such as SAIL, PROSAIL, DART, LESS, Eradiate, and DIRSIG now offer accurate and efficient simulations of remote sensing data and radiation budgets for both schematic and realistic urban and natural surfaces, possibly with topography and atmosphere. For instance, the DART (Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer) model, developed at CESBIO since 1992, is widely used by NASA, ESA, and CNES (the French Space Agency) for space mission designs, remote sensing data processing, land surface parameter retrieval, and thematic research such as urban heat flux, solar-induced fluorescence, and fire analysis.
As the demand for precise land surface parameters grows, especially for meeting GCOS Essential Climate Variables requirements (https://gcos.wmo.int/en/essential-climate-variables), RTMs are essential. Advances in land surface reconstruction technologies, atmospheric reanalysis, and machine learning further enhance their usability and application scope. These advancements open up new perspectives for vegetation and urban studies, as well as other emerging domains using RTMs.
This Special Issue invites studies on the development, application, and validation of surface and atmospheric RTMs across vegetation, urban, and emerging environments. It aligns with the journal's scope by exploring how RTMs contribute to understanding and solving critical ecosystem and urban challenges. Topics range from RTM advancements and RTM-based methods to thematic applications such as urban heat fluxes, vegetation dynamics, and radiative energy balance.
Articles may address, but are not limited, to the following topics:
- Radiative transfer modeling;
- Inversion methods;
- 3D construction;
- Vegetation species mapping;
- Canopy structure analysis;
- Vegetation parameters estimation;
- Urban heat flux;
- City surface albedo;
- Study of urban vegetation;
- Building surface temperature estimation;
- Validation of 3D RTM with measurements;
- Adjacency effects;
- Atmospheric correction;
- Machine learning with RTMs.
Dr. Yingjie Wang
Dr. Jonathan Leon-Tavares
Dr. Biao Cao
Dr. Tiangang Yin
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- radiative transfer models
- quantitative remote sensing
- forest parameters estimation
- vegetation functioning
- urban heat island
- inversion
- 3D construction
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
