Three-dimensional Radiative Transfer Research Articles

Effects of Mixture Mode on the Canopy Bidirectional Reflectance of Coniferous–Broadleaved Mixed Plantations

One of the main initiatives for China to achieve the goal of being carbon neutral before 2060 is transforming monocultures into mixed plantations in subtropical China, because mixed forests possess a higher quality than monocultures in various ways. Very high spatial resolution (VHR) satellite imagery is very promising to precisely monitor the transformation process under the premise of clarifying the canopy reflectance anisotropy of mixed plantations. However, it is almost impossible to understand the canopy reflectance anisotropy of mixed plantations with real satellite data due to the extreme lack of multiangular VHR satellite images. In this study, the effects of the mixture mode on the canopy bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) were comprehensively analyzed with simulated VHR images. The three-dimensional (3D) Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer model (DART) was used to construct a pure coniferous scene, a pure broadleaved scene, and 27 coniferous–broadleaved mixed plantation scenes containing 3 mixture patterns (i.e., mixed by single trees, mixed by stripes, and mixed by patches) and 9 mixing proportions (i.e., from 10% to 90% with the interval of 10%), and to simulate red (R) and near-infrared (NIR) VHR images for these 3D scenes at both the solar principal plane (SPP) and perpendicular plane (PP) under different solar-viewing geometries. Negative correlations were generally found between the canopy BRF and the ratio of conifers in a mixed stand. The anisotropy of conifer dominated plantations is more prominent than broadleaf dominated plantations, especially for the single tree mixture. Although the level of anisotropy is much lower for PP than SPP, it should not be ignored, especially for the R band. Observations under large viewing zenith angles at PP are more preferred to study the effect of mixing proportions, followed by forward observations at SPP. The R band image has higher potential to distinguish mixture patterns for broadleaf-dominated situations, while the NIR band image has a higher potential for conifer-dominated situations. Furthermore, the canopy BRF generally increases with the solar zenith angle, and one meter can be considered as the optimal spatial resolution for the optical monitoring of the mixture mode. The findings of the current study add some valuable theoretical knowledge for the accurate monitoring of coniferous–broadleaved mixed plantations with VHR imagery.

Self-consistent modelling of the dust component in protoplanetary and circumplanetary disks: the case of PDS 70

Context.Direct observations of young stellar objects are important to test established theories of planet formation. PDS 70 is one of the few cases where robust evidence favours the presence of two planetary mass companions inside the gap of the transition disk. Those planets are believed to be going through the last stages of accretion from the protoplanetary disk, a process likely mediated by a circumplanetary disk (CPD).Aims.We aim to develop a three-dimensional radiative transfer model for the dust component of the PDS 70 system which reproduces the system’s global features observed at two different wavelengths: 855 μm with the Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) and 1.25 μm with the Spectro-polarimetric high-contrast exoplanet research instrument at the Very large telescope (VLT/SPHERE). We use this model to investigate the physical properties of the planetary companion PDS 70 c and its potential circumplanetary disk.Methods.We base our modelling process on published ALMA and VLT/SPHERE observations of the dust continuum emission at 855 and 1.25 μm, respectively. We selected initial values for the physical properties of the planet and CPD through appropriate assumptions about the nature and evolutionary stage of the object. We modified the properties of the protoplanetary disk iteratively until the predictions retrieved from the model were consistent with both data sets. Simulations were carried out with the three-dimensional radiative transfer codeMCMax3D.Results.We provide a model that jointly explains the global features of the PDS 70 system seen in sub-millimetre and polarised-scattered light. Our model suggests that spatial segregation of dust grains is present in the protoplanetary disk. The sub-millimetre modelling of the PDS 70 c source favours the presence of an optically thick CPD and places an upper limit on its dust mass of 0.7M⊕. Furthermore, analysis of the thermal structure of the CPD demonstrates that the planet luminosity is the dominant heating mechanism of dust grains inside 0.6 au from the planet, while heating by stellar photons dominates at larger planetocentric distances.Conclusions.A CPD surrounding the planetary-mass companion PDS 70 c is a plausible scenario to explain the substructure observed with ALMA. The heating feedback from the protoplanetary disk has an non-negligible effect on the equilibrium temperature of dust grains in the outskirts of the CPD. The connection between the CPD properties and the planet mass still depends on a series of key assumptions. Further observations with high spatial and spectral resolution also for the gas component of the CPD are required to break the degeneracy between the properties of the planet and the disk.

Non-equilibrium radiation modeling in a gas kinetic simulation code

Radiation modeling is implemented in the highly parallel gas kinetic, open-source plasma simulation suite PICLas. A photon Monte Carlo approach for three-dimensional radiative energy transfer is developed. Since these kind of solvers have the disadvantage of high computational costs and statistical fluctuations, these points are addressed by specific adaptations to the solver. An approach to simulate axisymmetric problems is presented as well as noise reducing methods. Results are compared to a semi-infinite black body radiating cylinder, where an analytical solution is known, and a good agreement for both, three-dimensional and axisymmetric simulations is demonstrated. It is also shown that the implemented noise reducing methods can reduce statistical fluctuations. To calculate radiative properties in terms of emission and absorption coefficients, a line-by-line method is implemented and compared with good agreement to results obtained with other well-established radiation codes. The FIRE II reentry is used as a test case for a simulation combined with DSMC. Unidirectional coupling with the developed radiation modules shows good results compared to measured values as well as in performance scaling.

Application of a Hypergeometric Model in Simulating Canopy Gap Fraction and BRF for Forest Plantations on Sloping Terrains

The influence of tree distribution and slope on canopy gap fraction (GF) and bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) is shown here to be non-negligible. Trees are often assumed to be randomly distributed in natural forests due to random distribution of natural resources, but this assumption is not valid for forest plantations. A geometric optical model for forest plantations (GOFP) is a geometric optical model for forest plantations on horizontal surfaces based on the theory of exclusion distance among crowns. Sloping terrains change the exclusion distance among crowns, and inevitably affect the canopy GF and BRF. In this article, GOFP with a hypergeometric model (distances among trees are considered) on horizontal surfaces is modified as GOFP-T to simulate BRF for forest plantations on sloping terrains under two scenarios: (horizontal distances among crowns remain unchanged with slope) and (sloping distances among crowns remain unchanged with slope). Two three-dimensional (3-D) radiative transfer models (DART and LESS) and field measurements are used to evaluate and validate GOFP-T simulations. The results show that 1) the canopy GF, four component area ratios, and canopy BRF simulated by GOFP-T show high consistency with results from the two 3-D model: root-mean-square errors in GF, sunlit foliage, and sunlit ground are less than 0.02, 0.06, and 0.03, respectively; 2) forest coverage and canopy reflectance in GOFP-T are compared well with point cloud results from an airboard LiDAR system and Landsat 8 OLI surface reflectance products, respectively, indicating that GOFP-T has ability in simulating canopy reflectance for forest plantations on sloping terrains. GOFP-T with the hypergeometric model in this article is the first simple model to simulate canopy GF and BRF for forest plantations on sloping terrains.

A GPU-Based Solution for Ray Tracing 3-D Radiative Transfer Model for Optical and Thermal Images

Three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer (RT) models are frequently recognized as a prerequisite when using high spatial resolution remote sensing data in heterogeneous surfaces. However, most studies of 3D RT models have been restricted to limited applications due to the low computational efficiency. Therefore, this study proposed a graphic processing unit (GPU)-based solution for the ray tracing 3D RT model. A state-of-the-art graphics and compute application programming interface, Vulkan, was introduced to implement the RT process. A bounding box method was adopted for the computation acceleration. By comparison with a central processing unit (CPU)-based solution, the performance efficiency of the proposed solution is significantly better: the simulation time of a GPU model is significantly reduced by more than 99% when facing a large-scale simulation mission. The simulation accuracy of the two solutions is similar, with root mean squared errors (RMSEs) lower than 0.005, 0.032 and 0.31 K for the red, near-infrared (NIR) and brightness temperature images, respectively. An evaluation based on airborne multiangle measurements also indicated that the accuracy of the proposed solution was satisfactory for simulating the red and NIR bidirectional reflectance factor and brightness temperature directional anisotropies, with RMSEs lower than 0.003, 0.020 and 0.20 K, respectively, when treating the whole scene as a pixel. Considering the simulation accuracy and efficiency, a GPU-based model will be an important supplement to the CPU model.

Three-dimensional radiative transfer modeling of forest: recent progress, applications, and future opportunities

Three-dimensional radiative transfer modeling of forest: recent progress, applications, and future opportunities

Estimating Leaf Area Index with Dynamic Leaf Optical Properties

Leaf area index (LAI) plays an important role in models of climate, hydrology, and ecosystem productivity. The physical model-based inversion method is a practical approach for large-scale LAI inversion. However, the ill-posed inversion problem, due to the limited constraint of inaccurate input parameters, is the dominant source of inversion errors. For instance, variables related to leaf optical properties are always set as constants or have large ranges, instead of the actual leaf reflectance of pixel vegetation in the current model-based inversions. This paper proposes to estimate LAI with the actual leaf optical property of pixels, calculated from the leaf chlorophyll content (Chlleaf) product, using a three-dimensional stochastic radiative transfer model (3D-RTM)-based, look-up table method. The parameter characterizing leaf optical properties in the 3D-RTM-based LAI inversion algorithm, single scattering albedo (SSA), is calculated with the Chlleaf product, instead of setting fixed values across a growing season. An algorithm to invert LAI with the dynamic SSA of the red band (SSAred) is proposed. The retrieval index (RI) increases from less than 42% to 100%, and the RMSE decreases to less than 0.28 in the simulations. The validation results show that the RMSE of the dynamic SSA decreases from 1.338 to 0.511, compared with the existing 3D-RTM-based LUT algorithm. The overestimation problem under high LAI conditions is reduced.

TRINITY: A three-dimensional time-dependent radiative transfer code for in-vivo near-infrared imaging

We develop a new three-dimensional time-dependent radiative transfer code, TRINITY (Time-dependent Radiative transfer In Near-Infrared TomographY), for in-vivo diffuse optical tomography (DOT). The simulation code is based on the design of long radiation rays connecting boundaries of a computational domain, which allows us to calculate light propagation with little numerical diffusion. We parallelize the code with Message Passing Interface (MPI) using the domain decomposition technique and confirm the high parallelization efficiency, so that simulations with a spatial resolution of ∼1 millimeter can be performed in practical time. As a first application, we study the light propagation for a pulse collimated within θ∼15∘ in a phantom, which is a uniform medium made of polyurethane mimicking biological tissue. We show that the pulse spreads in all forward directions over ∼ a few millimeters due to the multiple scattering process of photons. Our simulations successfully reproduce the time-resolved signals measured with eight detectors for the phantom. We also introduce the effects of reflection and refraction at the boundary of medium with a different refractive index and demonstrate the faster propagation of photons in an air hole that is an analogue for the respiratory tract.

A comprehensive evaluation of the WSGG model for air- and oxy-fuel combustion conditions through three-dimensional calculations

This paper reports an assessment of the accuracy of most formulations of the weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) model proposed in the last decade for the treatment of mixtures of water vapor and carbon dioxide. The analysis is based on non-coupled, three-dimensional radiative transfer calculations of cases representative of air- and oxy-fuel combustion at fixed or varying H2O–CO2 mole fraction ratios (MR). The reference solution is computed by line-by-line (LBL) integration. The WSGG model is shown as capable to provide accurate results for all cases under study, with existing correlations for the model displaying maximum errors below 4%. Formulations developed considering MR variations can in general be safely used even for cases where MR is constant; likewise, fixed-MR correlations can be applied for varying-MR scenarios, as long as the regions of most importance for the radiative transfer have a MR value close to the one for which the correlations were generated. The superposition WSGG model is tested as well, and it yields consistently accurate results for all test cases, although at a significantly larger processing cost than the standard WSGG model. An alternative approach for treating media with varying mole ratio, consisting of interpolating fixed-MR correlations, is also found to be promising.

Evonik presents its latest “Living polyurethanes” solutions for improving daily life at PU China 2021

This paper reports an assessment of the accuracy of most formulations of the weighted-sum-of-gray-gases (WSGG) model proposed in the last decade for the treatment of mixtures of water vapor and carbon dioxide. The analysis is based on non-coupled, three-dimensional radiative transfer calculations of cases representative of air- and oxy-fuel combustion at fixed or varying H2O–CO2 mole fraction ratios (MR). The reference solution is computed by line-by-line (LBL) integration. The WSGG model is shown as capable to provide accurate results for all cases under study, with existing correlations for the model displaying maximum errors below 4%. Formulations developed considering MR variations can in general be safely used even for cases where MR is constant; likewise, fixed-MR correlations can be applied for varying-MR scenarios, as long as the regions of most importance for the radiative transfer have a MR value close to the one for which the correlations were generated. The superposition WSGG model is tested as well, and it yields consistently accurate results for all test cases, although at a significantly larger processing cost than the standard WSGG model. An alternative approach for treating media with varying mole ratio, consisting of interpolating fixed-MR correlations, is also found to be promising.

Influence of atmospheric adjacency effect on top-of-atmosphere radiances and its correction in the retrieval of Lambertian surface reflectivity based on three-dimensional radiative transfer

In satellite-based and airborne imagery, the observed radiances reflected by a certain pixel at the surface are additionally influenced by reflections from the neighboring surface pixels and multiple scatterings due to atmospheric components (mainly cloud and aerosol particles) into the observational solid angle of the imaging camera. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the atmospheric adjacency effect. This three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer effect is caused by spatial inhomogeneities of the surface reflectivity and the atmospheric properties. Based on the recently published 3D radiative transfer code LEIPSIC (Light Estimator Including Polarization, Surface Inhomogeneities, and Clouds), a new atmospheric correction (AC) algorithm is proposed to consider for the atmospheric adjacency effect when estimating the surface reflectivity from satellite or airborne imagery. The effectiveness of the new AC algorithm is quantified and compared to the results based on the independent pixel approximation (IPA) radiative transfer approach. It is shown that the image blurring caused by the atmospheric adjacency effect and the error of reflectivity retrievals are reduced by 80% using the new AC algorithm. Furthermore, the simulations demonstrate that the vertical profile of the atmospheric properties is crucial in determining the quality of the AC.

Characterizing reflectance anisotropy of background soil in open-canopy plantations using UAV-based multiangular images

The canopy bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) plays a pivotal role in estimating the biophysical parameters of plants, whereas soil background anisotropy creates challenges for their retrieval. Soil optical properties affect canopy anisotropic characteristics, especially in open-canopy areas. However, the remote sensing of background anisotropy is challenging due to the difficulties of information extraction in complex forest ecosystems and varying illumination conditions. This study develops an efficient photogrammetric technique to extract the background soil bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based multiangular images and to verify the need for accurate soil anisotropy information in canopy radiative transfer modeling. Soil BRF profiles were measured over three open-canopy sample plots from multiangular remotely sensed multispectral images collected with a hexacopter. As validation, reference soil BRF profiles were synchronously acquired by a ground-based multiangular imaging system.A high level of consistency between the ground- and UAV-measured soil BRF was observed with an RMSE of less than 0.012. Uncertainty analysis of the measured soil BRF showed that multiple scattering between sunlit soil in large sunflecks and foliage elements contributed less than 5%. Both results demonstrated that soil anisotropy can be accurately extracted from UAV multiangular measurements. To explicitly demonstrate that the use of soil anisotropy can reduce uncertainties in canopy radiative transfer simulations, we simulated the canopy BRF with Lambertian soil and with anisotropic soil using a three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer model under different soil moisture content (SMC) levels, canopy cover (CC) levels and solar zenith angles (SZAs) with simulated realistic forest scenes. We found that less CC, lower SZAs and less SMC lead to a more significant influence of soil anisotropy on canopy reflectance; e.g., the reflectance bias reaches up to 0.3 in the hotspot direction. This illustrates that neglecting soil anisotropy can cause considerable errors in the modeling of the canopy BRF of open forests (i.e., CC levels of less than 0.5). The proposed technique facilitates the characterization of anisotropic forest background soil, which is important for advancing canopy radiative transfer modeling and validation and for the retrieval of vegetation parameters.

Long Characteristics versus Short Characteristics in 3D Radiative Transfer Simulations of Polarized Radiation

Abstract We compare maps of scattering polarization signals obtained from three-dimensional (3D) radiation transfer calculations in a magnetoconvection model of the solar atmosphere using formal solvers based on the “short characteristics” (SC) and the “long characteristics” (LC) methods. The SC method requires less computational work, but it is known to introduce spatial blurring in the emergent radiation for inclined lines of sight. For polarized radiation this effect is generally more severe due to it being a signed quantity and to the sensitivity of the scattering polarization to the model’s inhomogeneities. We study the differences in the polarization signals of the emergent spectral line radiation calculated with such formal solvers. We take as a case study already published results of the scattering polarization in the Sr i 4607 Å line obtained with the SC method, demonstrating that in high-resolution grids it is accurate enough for that type of study. In general, the LC method is the preferred one for accurate calculations of the emergent radiation, which is the reason why it is now one of the options in the public version of the 3D radiative transfer code PORTA.

The Effects of Three-dimensional Radiative Transfer on the Resonance Polarization of the Ca i 4227 Å Line

Abstract The sizable linear polarization signals produced by the scattering of anisotropic radiation in the core of the Ca i 4227 Å line constitute an important observable for probing the inhomogeneous and dynamic plasma of the lower solar chromosphere. Here we show the results of a three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer complete frequency redistribution investigation of the line’s scattering polarization in a magnetohydrodynamical 3D model of the solar atmosphere. We take into account not only the Hanle effect produced by the model’s magnetic field but also the symmetry breaking caused by the horizontal inhomogeneities and macroscopic velocity gradients. The spatial gradients of the horizontal components of the macroscopic velocities produce very significant forward scattering polarization signals without the need of magnetic fields, while the Hanle effect tends to depolarize them at the locations where the model’s magnetic field is stronger than about 5 G. The standard 1.5D approximation is found to be unsuitable for understanding the line’s scattering polarization, but we introduce a novel improvement to this approximation that produces results in qualitative agreement with the full 3D results. The instrumental degradation of the calculated polarization signals is also investigated, showing what we can expect to observe with the Visible Spectro-Polarimeter at the upcoming Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.

The Impact of Limited Time Resolution on the Forward-scattering Polarization in the Solar Sr I 4607 Å Line

Abstract Theoretical investigations predicted that high spatiotemporal resolution observations in the Sr i 4607 Å line must show a conspicuous scattering polarization pattern at the solar disk center, which encodes information on the unresolved magnetism of the intergranular photospheric plasma. Here we present a study of the impact of limited time resolution on the observability of such forward-scattering (disk-center) polarization signals. Our investigation is based on three-dimensional radiative transfer calculations in a time-dependent magnetoconvection model of the quiet solar photosphere, taking into account anisotropic radiation pumping and the Hanle effect. This type of radiative transfer simulation is computationally costly, which is why the time variation had not been investigated before for this spectral line. We compare our theoretical results with recent disk-center filter polarimetric observations in the Sr i 4607 Å line, showing that there is good agreement in the polarization patterns. We also show what we can expect to observe with the Visible Spectro-Polarimeter at the upcoming Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.

Three-dimensional continuum radiative transfer of polarized radiation in exoplanetary atmospheres

Context.Polarimetry is about to become a powerful tool for determining the atmospheric properties of exoplanets. For example, recent observations of the WASP-18 system allowed the polarized flux resulting from scattering in the atmosphere of WASP-18b to be constrained. To provide the basis for the interpretation of such observational results and for predictive studies to guide future observations, sophisticated analysis tools are required.Aims.Our goal is to develop a radiative transfer tool that contains all the relevant continuum polarization mechanisms for the comprehensive analysis of the polarized flux resulting from the scattering in the atmosphere of, on the surface of, and in the local planetary environment (e.g., planetary rings, exomoons) of extra-solar planets. Furthermore, our goal is to avoid common simplifications such as locally plane-parallel planetary atmospheres, the missing cross-talk between latitudinal and longitudinal regions, or the assumption of either a point-like star or plane-parallel illumination.Methods.As a platform for the newly developed numerical algorithms, we use the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code POLARIS. The code is extended and optimized for the radiative transfer in exoplanetary atmospheres. We investigate the reflected flux and its degree of polarization for different phase angles for a homogeneous cloud-free atmosphere and an inhomogeneous cloudy atmosphere. Our results are compared with already existing results to verify the implementations. To take advantage of the 3D radiative transfer and to demonstrate the potential of the code, the impact of an additional circumplanetary ring on the reflected polarized flux is studied. Therefore, a simple ring model with water-ice particles is used and various inclination angles, optical depths and viewing angles are investigated.Results.The considered test cases show a good agreement with already existing results. The presence of a circumplanetary ring consisting of small water-ice particles has a noticeable impact on the reflected polarized radiation. In particular, the reflected flux strongly increases at larger phase angles if the planetary orbit is seen edge-on because the considered particles tend to scatter forwards. In contrast, the degree of polarization decreases at these phase angles.Conclusions.We present a polarization radiative transfer tool in which all relevant contributions to the reflected polarized continuum flux are considered. In a case study, we investigated the impact of a planetary ring on the net polarization signal.

Improved near optimal angular quadratures for polarised radiative transfer in 3D MHD models

Accurate angular quadratures are crucial for the numerical solution of three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer problems, especially when the spectral line polarisation produced by the scattering of anisotropic radiation is included. There are two requirements for obtaining an optimal quadrature and they are difficult to satisfy simultaneously: high accuracy and short computing time. By imposing certain symmetries, we were recently able to derive a set of near optimal angular quadratures. Here, we extend our previous investigation by considering other symmetries. Moreover, we test the performance of our new quadratures by numerically solving a radiative transfer problem of resonance line polarisation in a 3D model of the solar atmosphere resulting from a magneto-hydrodynamical simulation. The new angular quadratures derived here outperform the previous ones in terms of the number of rays needed to achieve any given accuracy.

Investigation of the Geometric Shape Effect on the Solar Energy Potential of Gymnasium Buildings

Gymnasium are typically large-span buildings with abundant solar energy resources due to their extensive roof surface. However, relevant research on this topic has not been thoroughly conducted to investigate the effect of the geometric shape of gymnasium buildings on their solar potential. In this paper, an investigation of the geometric shape effect on the solar potential of gymnasium buildings is presented. A three-dimensional radiation transfer model coupled with historical meteorological data was established to estimate the real-time solar potential of the roof of a gymnasium building. The rooftop solar potential of three typical building foundation shapes and different types of roof shapes that have evolved was systematically analyzed. An annual solar potential cloud map of each gymnasium building is generated. The monthly and annual average solar radiation intensities of the different types of roof shapes are investigated. Compared to the optimal tilt angle, the maximum decrease in the average radiation intensity reached −20.42%, while the minimum decline was −8.64% for all types of building shapes. The solar energy potential fluctuated by up to 11% across the various roof shapes, which indicate that shape selection is of vital importance for integrated photovoltaic gymnasium buildings. The results presented in this work are essential for clarifying the effects of the geometric shape of gymnasium buildings on the solar potential of their roofs, which provide an important reference for building design.

Application of Monte Carlo Method for Modeling Reflection and Transmission of Solar Radiation by the Forest Canopy

A Monte Carlo-based three-dimensional radiative transfer model has been developed to describe the reflection and scattering of solar radiation within a spatially heterogeneous plant canopy. In the model the plant canopy is considered as a group of trees with a similar spatial structure, modeled using fractal geometry. The architecture of an individual tree is described using its height, the number and length of branches of different orders, the angle of inclination of the branches, and the number of leaves. To describe the spatial patterns of solar radiation within a non-uniform plant canopy, the contribution of each model ‘‘photon’’ is calculated in the model taking its interaction and possible multiple reflection on vegetation elements and the soil surface based on the Lambert’s law into account. Possible directions of photon propagation were determined according to the 9th order Gauss-Markov quadrature formulas. The results of numerical experiments for the case of the solar radiation interaction with an individual tree have shown that the model adequately describes the spatial heterogeneity of reflected and transmitted direct solar radiation.

Dust Dispersion and Its Effect on Vegetation Spectra at Canopy and Pixel Scales in an Open-Pit Mining Area

Dust pollution is severe in some mining areas in China due to rapid industrial development. Dust deposited on the vegetation canopy may change its spectra. However, a relationship between canopy spectra and dust amount has not been quantitatively studied, and a pixel-scale condition for remote sensing application has not been considered yet. In this study, the dust dispersion characteristics in an iron mining area were investigated using the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory model (AERMOD). Further, based on the three-dimensional discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) model, the spectral characteristics of vegetation canopy under the dusty condition were simulated, and the influence of dustfall on vegetation canopy spectra was studied. Finally, the dust effect on vegetation spectra at the canopy scale was extended to a pixel scale, and the response of dust effect on vegetation spectra at the pixel scale was determined under different fractional vegetation covers (FVCs). The experimental results show that the dust pollution along a haul road was more severe and extensive than that in a stope. Taking dust dispersion along the road as an example, the variation of vegetation canopy spectra increased with the height of dust deposited on the vegetation canopy. At the pixel scale, a lower vegetation FVC would weaken the influence of dust on the spectra. The results derived from simulation spectral data were tested using satellite remote sensing images. The tested result indicates that the influence of dust retention on the pixel spectra with different FVCs was consistent with that created with the simulated data. The finding could be beneficial for those making decisions on monitoring vegetation under dusty conditions and reducing dust pollution in mining areas using remote sensing technology.