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Objective The aim of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the relationship between short echo time pulmonary 1 H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal intensity (SI) and 3 He MRI apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC), high-resolution computed tomography (CT) measurements of emphysema, and pulmonary function measurements. Materials and methods Nine healthy never-smokers and 11 COPD subjects underwent same-day plethysmography, spirometry, short echo time ((TE) = 1.2 ms) 1 H and diffusion-weighted hyperpolarized 3 He MRI ( b = 1.6 s/cm 2 ) at 3.0 T. In addition, for COPD subjects only, CT densitometry was also performed. Results Mean 1 H SI was significantly greater for never-smokers (12.1 ± 1.1 arbitrary units (AU)) compared to COPD subjects (10.9 ± 1.3 AU, p = 0.04). The 1 H SI AP-gradient was also significantly greater for never-smokers (0.40 AU/cm, R 2 = 0.94) compared to COPD subjects (0.29 AU/cm, R 2 = 0.968, p = 0.05). There was a significant correlation between 1 H SI and 3 He ADC ( r = −0.58, p = 0.008) and significant correlations between 1 H MR SI and CT measurements of emphysema (RA 950 , r = −0.69, p = 0.02 and HU 15 , r = 0.66, p = 0.03). Conclusions The significant and moderately strong relationship between 1 H SI and 3 He ADC, as well as between 1 H SI and CT measurements of emphysema suggests that these imaging methods and measurements may be quantifying similar tissue changes in COPD and that pulmonary 1 H SI may be used to monitor emphysema as a complement to CT and noble gas MRI.