326 research outputs found

    Optimal Exploitation of the Sentinel-2 Spectral Capabilities for Crop Leaf Area Index Mapping

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    The continuously increasing demand of accurate quantitative high quality information on land surface properties will be faced by a new generation of environmental Earth observation (EO) missions. One current example, associated with a high potential to contribute to those demands, is the multi-spectral ESA Sentinel-2 (S2) system. The present study focuses on the evaluation of spectral information content needed for crop leaf area index (LAI) mapping in view of the future sensors. Data from a field campaign were used to determine the optimal spectral sampling from available S2 bands applying inversion of a radiative transfer model (PROSAIL) with look-up table (LUT) and artificial neural network (ANN) approaches. Overall LAI estimation performance of the proposed LUT approach (LUTN₅₀) was comparable in terms of retrieval performances with a tested and approved ANN method. Employing seven- and eight-band combinations, the LUTN₅₀ approach obtained LAI RMSE of 0.53 and normalized LAI RMSE of 0.12, which was comparable to the results of the ANN. However, the LUTN50 method showed a higher robustness and insensitivity to different band settings. Most frequently selected wavebands were located in near infrared and red edge spectral regions. In conclusion, our results emphasize the potential benefits of the Sentinel-2 mission for agricultural applications

    A sensor view model to investigate the influence of tree crowns on effective urban thermal anisotropy

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    A sensor view model is modified to include trees using a gap probability approach to estimate foliage view factors and an energy budget model for leaf surface temperatures (SUMVEG). The model is found to compare well with airborne thermal infrared (TIR) surface temperature measurements. SUMVEG is used to investigate the influence of trees on thermal anisotropy for narrow field-of-view TIR remote sensors over treed residential urban surfaces. Tests on regularly-spaced arrays of cubes on March 28 and June 21 at latitudes of 47.6°N and 25.8°N show that trees both decrease and increase anisotropy as a function of tree crown and building plan fractions. In compact geometries, anisotropy tends to decrease with tree crown plan fraction, with the opposite in open geometries, though trees taller than building height cause anisotropy to increase for all building plan fractions. These results help better understand and potentially correct urban thermal anisotropy

    Improving ecological forecasts using model and data constraints

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    Terrestrial ecosystems are essential to human well-being, but their future remains highly uncertain, as evidenced by the huge disparities in model projections of the land carbon sink. The existence of these disparities despite the recent explosion of novel data streams, including the TRY plant traits database, the Landsat archive, and global eddy covariance tower networks, suggests that these data streams are not being utilized to their full potential by the terrestrial ecosystem modeling community. Therefore, the overarching objective of my dissertation is to identify how these various data streams can be used to improve the precision of model predictions by constraining model parameters. In chapter 1, I use a hierarchical multivariate meta-analysis of the TRY database to assess the dependence of trait correlations on ecological scale and evaluate the utility of these correlations for constraining ecosystem model parameters. I find that global trait correlations are generally consistent within plant functional types, and leveraging the multivariate trait space is an effective way to constrain trait estimates for data-limited traits and plant functional types. My next two chapters assess the ability to measure traits using remote sensing by exploring the links between leaf traits and reflectance spectra. In chapter 2, I introduce a method for estimating traits from spectra via radiative transfer model inversion. I then use this approach to show that although the precise location, width, and quantity of spectral bands significantly affects trait retrieval accuracy, a wide range of sensor configurations are capable of providing trait information. In chapter 3, I apply this approach to a large database of leaf spectra to show that traits vary as much within as across species, and much more across species within a functional type than across functional types. Finally, in chapter 4, I synthesize the findings of the previous chapters to calibrate a vegetation model's representation of canopy radiative transfer against observed remotely-sensed surface reflectance. Although the calibration successfully constrained canopy structural parameters, I identify issues with model representations of wood and soil reflectance that inhibit its ability to accurately reproduce remote sensing observations

    Evaluation of transpiration in different almond production systems with two-source energy balance models from UAV thermal and multispectral imagery

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    A growing number of intensive irrigated production systems of the almond crop have been established in recent years. However, there is little information regarding the crop water requirements. Remote sensing-based models such as the two-source energy balance (TSEB) have proven to be reliable ways to accurately estimate actual crop evapotranspiration. However, few efforts have been made to validate the transpiration with sap flow measurements in woody row crops with different production systems and water status. In this study, the TSEB Priestley-Taylor (TSEB-PT) and contextual approach (TSEB-2T) models were assessed to estimate canopy transpiration. In addition, the effect of applying a basic clumping index for heterogeneous randomly placed clumped canopies and a rectangular hedgerow clumping index on the TSEB transpiration estimation was assessed. The TSEB inputs were obtained from high resolution multispectral and thermal imagery using an unmanned aerial vehicle. The leaf area index (LAI), stem water potential (Ψstem) and fractional intercepted photosynthetically active radiation (fIPAR) were also measured. Significant differences were observed in transpiration between production systems and irrigation treatments. The combined use of the TSEB-2T with the C&N-R transmittance model gave the best transpiration estimations for all production systems and irrigation treatments. The use of in situ PAR transmittance in the TSEB-2T model significantly improved the root mean squared error. Thus, the better agreement observed with the TSEB when using the C&N-R model and in situ PAR transmittance highlights the importance of improving radiative transfer models for shortwave canopy transmittance, especially in woody row crops.This research was supported by the PRIMA ALTOS project (No. PCI2019-103649) funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Spanish government and by the internal IRTA's scholarship. The authors would also like to thank all the Efficient Use of Water in Agriculture program team, at the IRTA, for their technical support, as well as the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (H2020) of the European Commission, in the context of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) action and ACCWA project: grant agreement No.: 823965. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Influence of sun zenith angle on canopy clumping and the resulting impacts on photosynthesis

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    Addressing the impact of vegetation architecture on shortwave radiation transfer in land surface models is important for accurate weather forecasting, carbon budget estimates, and climate predictions. This paper investigates to what extent it is possible to retrieve structural parameters of two different parameterization schemes from direct transmittance derived from digital hemispherical photography and 3D radiative transfer modeling for two study sites with different vegetation canopy architectures. Neglecting the representation of 3D canopy structure in radiative transfer schemes leads to significant errors in shortwave radiation partitioning (up to 3.5 times more direct transmittance in the 3D model). Structural parameters, referred to as whole canopy ‘clumping indices’, were obtained in order to evaluate the impact of angular variation in clumping on shortwave radiation transfer. Impacts on photosynthesis were evaluated at site level with the UKESM land surface model, JULES. A comparison between flux tower derived and modeled photosynthesis indicates that considering zenith angular variations of structural parameters in the radiative transfer scheme of the UKESM land surface model significantly improves photosynthesis prediction in light limited ecosystems (from RMSE = 2.91 mol CO2.m-2.s-1 to RMSE = 1.51 mol CO2.m-2.s-1, 48% smaller), typically with enhanced photosynthesis from bottom layers

    How does the global Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) product relate to regionally developed land cover and vegetation products in a semi-arid Australian savanna?

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    Spatio-temporally variable information on total vegetation cover is highly relevant to water quality and land management in river catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. A time series of the global Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR; 2000-2006) and its underlying biome classification (MOD12Q1) were compared to national land cover and regional, remotely sensed products in the dry-tropical Burdekin River. The MOD12Q1 showed reasonable agreement with a classification of major vegetation groups for 94% of the study area. We then compared dry-seasonal, quality controlled MODIS FPAR observations to (i) Landsat-based woody foliage projective cover (wFPC) (2004) and (ii) MODIS bare ground index (BGI) observations (2001-2003). Statistical analysis of the MODIS FPAR revealed a significant sensitivity to Landsat wFPC-based Vegetation Structural Categories (VSC) and VSC-specific temporal variability over the 2004 dry season. The MODIS FPAR relation to 20 coinciding MODIS BGI dry-seasonal observations was significant (ρ < 0.001) for homogeneous areas of low wFPC. Our results show that the global MODIS FPAR can be used to identify VSC, represent VSC-specific variability of PAR absorption, and indicate that the amount, structure, and optical properties of green and non-green vegetation components contribute to the MODIS FPAR signal
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