Evaluation of Spectral Scale Effects in Estimation of Vegetation Leaf Area Index Using Spectral Indices Methods

Spectral index methodology has been widely used in Leaf Area Index(LAI) retrieval at different spatial scales. There are differences in the spectral response of different remote sensors and thus spectral scale effect generated during the use of spectral indices to retrieve LAI. In this study, PROSPECT, leaf optical properties model and Scattering by Arbitrarily Inclined Layers(SAIL) model, were used to simulate canopy spectral reflectance with a bandwidth of 5 nm and a Gaussian spectral response function was employed to simulate the spectral data at six bandwidths ranging from 10 to 35 nm. Additionally, for bandwidths from 5 to 35 nm, the correlation between the spectral index and LAI, and the sensitivities of the spectral index to changes in LAI and bandwidth were analyzed. Finally, the reflectance data at six bandwidths ranging from 40 to 65 nm were used to verify the spectral scale effect generated during the use of the spectral index to retrieve LAI. Results indicate that Vegetation Index of the Universal Pattern Decomposition(VIUPD) had the highest accuracy during LAI retrieval. Followed by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI), Modified Simple Ratio Indices(MSRI) and Triangle Vegetation Index(TVI), although the coefficient of determination R^2 was higher than 0.96, the retrieved LAI values were less than the actual value and thus lacked validity. Other spectral indices were significantly affected by the spectral scale effect with poor retrieval results. In this study, VIUPD, which exhibited a relatively good correlation and sensitivity to LAI, was less affected by the spectral scale effect and had a relatively good retrieval capability. This conclusion supports a purported feature independent of the sensor of this model and also confirms the great potential of VIUPD for retrieval of physicochemical parameters of vegetation using multi-source remote sensing data.

Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Radiative Transfer Model in Microwave Region

The radiative transfer is one of the significant theories that describe the processes of scattering, emission, and absorption of electromagnetic radiant intensity through scattering medium. It is the basis of the study on the quan-titative remote sensing. In this paper, the radiative characteristics of soil, vegetation, and atmosphere were described respectively. The numerical solution of radiative transfer was accomplished by Successive Orders of Scattering (SOS). A radiative transfer model for simulating microwave brightness temperature over land surfaces was constructed, de-signed, and implemented. Analyzing the database generated from soil-vegetation-atmosphere radiative transfer model under Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) configuration showed that the atmospheric effects on microwave brightness temperature should not be neglected, particularly for higher frequency, and can be parameterized. At the same time, the relationship between the emissivities of the different channels was developed. The study results will promote the development of algorithm to retrieve geophysical parameters from mi-crowave remotely sensed data.

Atmospheric radiative transfer simulation for at mospheric correction of remote sensing data

The radiance leaving the earth-atmosphere system which can be sensed by a satellite borne radiometer is the sum of radiation emission from the earth surface and each atmospheric level that are transmitted to the top of the atmosphere. The radiation emission from the earth surface and the radiance of each atmospheric level can be separated from the radiance at the top the atmospheric level measured by a satellite borne radiometer. However, it is very difficult to measure the atmospheric radiance, especially the synchronous measurement with the satellite. Thus some atmospheric radiative transfer models have been developed to provide many options for modeling atmospheric radiation transport, such as LOWTRAN, MODTRAN, 6S, FASCODE, LBLRTM, SHARC, and SAMM. Meanwhile, these models can support the detailed detector system design, the optimization and evaluation of satellite mission parameters, and the data processing procedures. As an example, the newly atmospheric radiative transfer models, MODTRAN will be compared with other models after the atmospheric radiative transfer is described. And the atmospheric radiative transfer simulation procedures and their applications to atmospheric transmittance, retrieval of atmospheric elements, and surface parameters, will also be presented.