Previous studies at Shafter have demonstrated that differences in surface temperature associated with water stress can readily be observed in multispectral images of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fields. In 1999, remote sensing and field observations were made to develop a linear mixture modeling approach to extracting cotton leaf canopy temperature from measurements of surface temperature. In this approach, bare soil temperature within the field was found to be correlated with the amount of crop ground cover. With this information, the effects of incomplete ground cover could be accounted for in estimating the temperature of the cotton leaf canopy.