We report on simultaneous measurements of the emittance, transmittance and reflectance of a porous alumina under same environment at 573 K, which has not been obtained. It is demonstrated that the correction of substrate radiation and multiple reflections is important for the accurate measurement of infrared (IR) optical properties of porous materials in a two-substrate method. We deduced the extinction, absorption and scattering coefficients of the alumina from the measured three quantities, based on the classical geometry model. The coefficients explain the difference of the IR optical properties between the alumina and the sapphire. The increasing reflectance of the alumina with thickness, unlike the sapphire, is attributed to the relatively high scattering coefficient at short wavelengths. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.