Estimation of the Thermodynamic Parameters of Land Cover from Multispectral Measurements of Reflected Solar Radiation (Landsat) in Terms of Nonextensive Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

This paper substantiates the use of the nonadditive statistical mechanics equipment to estimate the thermodynamic variables of an ecosystem in terms of the multispectral measurements of reflected solar radiation. The parameter q is accepted as corresponding to the Förster maximum organization conditions. The remote information (Landsat) has been used to calculate the entropy, Kullback information, Förster organization measure, free energy, exergy, related and internal energy, and the energy consumption for evapotranspiration and photosynthesis for the q index measured for each pixel of the satellite images. It is proved that the seasonal dynamics of the q index and the organization measure is fully consistent with the implications arising from the open nonequilibrium system theory, and the thermodynamic variables accurately reflect the current state of the ecosystem.