Remote sensing of solar radiation absorbed and reflected by vegetated land surfaces

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

OSTI ID:5121789

Tanre, D; Myneni, R B; Choudhury, B J ^[1]; Asrar, G ^[2]

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1. Hydrological Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (US)
2. NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC (US)

This paper discusses the problem of remotely sensing the amount of solar radiation absorbed and reflected by vegetated land surfaces which was investigated with the aid of one- and three-dimensional radiative transfer models. Desert-like vegetation was modeled as clumps of leaves randomly distributed on a bright dry soil with a ground cover of generally less than 100%. Surface albedo (ALB), fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by the canopy (FAPAR), fractions of solar radiation absorbed by the canopy (FASOLAR) and soil (FASOIL), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were calculated for various illumination conditions. A base case was defined with problem parameters considered typical for desert vegetation in order to understand the dynamics of NDVI and ALB with respect to ground cover, leaf area index, soil brightness, and illumination conditions. The magnitude of errors involved in the estimation of surface albedo from broad-band monodirectional measurements was assessed through model simulations of SPOT, AVHRR, and GOES sensors. The nature of the relationships between NDVI vs. FASOLAR, FAPAR, FASOIL, and ALB, and their sensitivity to all problem parameter was investigated in order to develop simple predictive models.

• OSTI ID: 5121789
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 30:2; ISSN 0196-2892; ISSN IGRSD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140100 -- Solar Energy-- Resources & Availability
440700 -- Geophysical & Meteorological Instrumentation-- (1990-)
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540210* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
ABSORPTION SPECTRA
CANOPIES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
FORESTS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PLANTS
RADIATIONS
REMOTE SENSING
SIMULATION
SOILS
SOLAR RADIATION
SPECTRA
STELLAR RADIATION