ISBN 0 471 28166 2. 160 · 243 mm. xxvi + 534 pages, plus CD-ROM. Illustrated. Price £82AE50 hardback. This new book presents the principles of optical remote sensing and selected algorithms for quantitatively estimating land surface variables from remotely sensed observations. According to the author, it evolved from lecture notes he prepared for a graduate course on remote sensing. The structure, content and style of the book reflect this. It has an explicit structure: it contains neat descriptions of context, terms, concepts, principles and complex models; it cites relevant scientific literature, and the style facilitates and encourages the study of quantitative methods of optical remote sensing of land surfaces.The book is essentially in two parts, with introductory and concluding chapters. The first part covers Chapters 2 to 4, and the second part Chapters 5 to 12.In Chapter 1, the author explains concepts of optical remote sensing of land surface variables. Quantitative models for estimating land surface variables from remotely sensed data fall into three categories: statistical, physical and hybrid. A concise review of concepts of optical remote sensing of land surfaces describes digital numbers, radiance and its directional dependence through solid angles, irradiance, bi-directional reflectance, albedo and extra-terrestrial solar irradiance. The components of modelling systems for remote sensing include scene generation, scene radiation modelling, atmospheric radiative transfer modelling, navigational modelling, and mapping and locating the results of modelling on the earth's surface. A forward modelling system predicts what remote sensing data will be, under a given set of remote sensing and environmental conditions. A physically-based inversion scheme determines various land surface geophysical and biophysical variables. The author aptly lays the foundation for the rest of the book.The first part of the book describes methods of physical modelling of the earth's atmosphere, vegetative canopies, soil and snow. Chapter 2 introduces radiative transfer in the atmosphere. It describes the radiative transfer equation in the solar spectrum, outlines analytical models of the bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BDRF) of land surfaces, to specify the lower boundary conditions of the radiative transfer equation, and links the quantities in this equation to atmospheric properties. It includes various numerical and approximate solutions, and approximate forms of radiative interactions between atmosphere and surface. Chapter 3 introduces physically-based canopy reflectance models for linking canopy properties with radiance measured by a remote sensor. It describes canopy radiative transfer formulae that are appropriate for dense vegetative canopies, introduces leaf-optical models that provide necessary leaf-optical properties for most canopy reflectance models, outlines geometric optical models that are used for sparse vegetative canopies, and discussesThe Photogrammetric Record 19(108): 413-422