Application of a radiative cooling model to daily minimum temperature prediction

A model of exponential decrease of temperature is applied to the study of night cooling in an agricultural area of citrus orchards located near the Valentian Coast (Spain). A set of annual average parameters which determine that cooling is obtained by using temperature measurements at different levels during two years. These parameters appear to be representative of the thermal behaviour of the area of study. The attainment of such parameters allows a prediction of the minimum temperatures of the area to an accuracy of £1.5 K, knowing the temperature at sunset and some time later.

Assessment of vine development according to available water resources by using remote sensing in La Mancha, Spain

Abstract The relevance of growing vines under semiarid conditions is universally accepted because of its impacts on social, economic and environmental aspects. Improving the knowledge of the soil–plant–atmosphere system related to the expression of vine growth allows the study of vine cover in wide areas. Several aspects of vine growing under semiarid conditions, related to weather, soil, and plant cover are analysed in this paper. Once the ground truth is achieved, multitemporal studies by remote sensing are especially useful for vine growth monitoring. The purpose of this work is focussed on determining changes of vine cover development according to available water resources in relation t…

Prototyping algorithm for retrieving FAPAR using MSG data in the context of the LSA SAF project

This paper describes the prototyping algorithm developed for retrieving the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) using MSG data in the framework of satellite application facility on land surface analysis (LSA SAF). The prototyping relies on the Roujean and Breon (1995) method, which is based on simulations of visible and near infrared reflectance values in an optimal geometry. A relationship is found between a vegetation index and daily FAPAR The algorithm has been applied to one year of MSG BRDF data since August 2005, using a temporal frequency of 5-days, and then validated against a set of operational satellite FAPAR products such as MODIS, MERIS, SeaWiFS and …

Tracking seasonal drought effects on ecosystem light use efficiency in a mediterranean forest using climatic and remote sensing data

Daily values of light use efficiency (LUE) of a Mediterranean forest throughout five years have been analyzed in terms of different spectral indices obtained from MODIS products and which are informative on the water stress conditions. Although correlations between LUE and the different indices are rather high, the inter-annual variation of LUE due to the summer water stress is not well identified in most of them. In particular, the PRI (photochemical reflectance index) inter-annual variation has been found to be mostly attributable to concurrent variations in sun and view zenith angles. For the study area and at MODIS spatial resolution, the different indices are informative on changes in …

Direct validation of FVC, LAI and FAPAR VEGETATION/SPOT derived products using LSA SAF methodology

The aim of this work is to perform a direct validation of fraction of vegetation cover (FVC), leaf area index (LAI) and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) resulting products from applying the LSA SAF methodology to VEGETATION BRDF data. LSA SAF adapted algorithms were tested in adequate test sites comprising different continental biomes covering a wide range of FVC, LAI and FAPAR values. Results seem to indicate the competitiveness of LSA SAF proposed methodology to retrieve remotely sensed biophysical parameters. A noticeable good agreement regarding the ground measurements was found. The overall accuracy (RAISE) is around 20% for FVC and FAPAR and around 15% …

Multisensor comparison of NDVI for a semi‐arid environment in Spain

The joint use of multiresolution sensors from different satellites offers many opportunities to describe vegetation and its dynamics. This paper introduces the concept of a virtual constellation (defined as an ensemble of all Earth Observation satellites in orbit that satisfy common requirements) for agricultural applications and contributes to providing the necessary inter-sensor calibration methodology for spectral reflectances and NDVI. For this purpose, we performed an observational study, comparing reflectances and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), from near-synchronous image pairs of Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), as the reference sensor and Landsat 5…

Solar angle and sky light effects on ground reflectance measurements in a citrus canopy

Abstract Ground radiometry was used to gather spectral data from different targets of a citrus canopy, in order to analyze the effect of solar zenith angle and proportion of diffuse radiation on spectral reflectance. Results have shown that the variation in solar angle causes significant changes in nadirsensed reflectance from vegetation, which exhibits a marked diurnal pattern with a minimum slightly shifted from the solar noon. This fact is more noticeable in the near-infrared and middle-infrared regions of the spectrum. Furthermore, the visible part of the spectrum has resulted in being highly influenced by the diffuse radiation incident on the canopy, which has been quantified by two di…

Simulation of citrus orchard reflectance by means of a geometrical canopy model

Computer simulation of the reflectance for citrus crops, by using a geometrical canopy model, has been carried out to analyse and interpret the reflectance values from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM...

Retrieving leaf area index from multi-angular airborne data

This work is aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of a methodology for retrieving bio-geophysical variables whilst at the same time fully accounting for additional information on directional anisotropy. A model-based approach has been developed to deconvolve the angular reflectance into single landcovers reflectances, attempting to solve the inconsistencies of 1D models and linear mixture approaches. The model combines the geometric optics of large scale canopy structure with principles of radiative transfer for volume scattering within individual crowns. The reliability of the model approach to retrieve LAI has been demonstrated using data from DAISEX- 99 campaign at Barrax, Spain. Airborn…

A simple geometrical model for analysing the spectral response of a citrus canopy using satellite images

Abstract A simple geometrical model has been proposed for a citrus canopy. We assume the citrus orchard to be a lattice structure, with the trees positioned at its points and where the composite-scene reflectance is the sum of the reflectance of its individual components as weighted by their respective surfaces within a unit area. The model has been used to analyse the citrus spectral response obtained from Landsat-5 TM images for winter and summer, where the status of the orchard is different. The correlations between spectral and geometrical data show the influence of per cent crop cover, shadows and background in the composite scene reflectance. We conclude that the summer images could b…

Monitoring fire-affected areas using Thematic Mapper data

In this paper three methods for updating inventories of burned areas have been presented and examined. They include Multitemporal Principal Component Analysis (MPCA), Change Vector Analysis (CVA) a...

Extraction of Endmembers from Spectral Mixtures

Abstract Linear spectral mixture modeling (LSMM) divides each ground resolution element into its constituent materials using endmembers which represent the spectral characteristics of the cover types. However, it is difficult to identify and estimate the spectral signature of pure components or endmembers which form the scene, since they vary with the scale and purpose of the study. We propose three different methods to estimate the spectra of pure components from a set of unknown mixture spectra. Two of the methods consist in different optimization procedures based on objective functions defined from the coordinate axes of the dominant factors. The third one consists in the design of a neu…

Vegetation vulnerability to drought in Spain

[EN] Frequency of climatic extremes like long duration droughts has increased in Spain over the last century.The use of remote sensing observations for monitoring and detecting drought is justified on the basis that vegetation vigor is closely related to moisture condition. We derive satellite estimates of bio-physical variables such as fractional vegetation cover (FVC) from MODIS/EOS and SEVIRI/MSG time series. The study evaluates the strength of temporal relationships between precipitation and vegetation condition at time-lag and cumulative rainfall intervals. From this analysis, it was observed that the climatic disturbances affected both the growing season and the total amount of vegeta…

A directional spectral mixture analysis method: application to multiangular airborne measurements

This study aims at developing an operational approach-namely, directional spectral mixture analysis (DISMA)-for retrieving vegetation parameters like fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and leaf area index (LAI) from multispectral and multiangular data. The approach attempts to highlight the consistency of one-dimensional models and linear mixture approaches. DISMA combines spectral signatures of soil and vegetation components with an analytical approximation of the radiative transfer equation, giving rise to a fast invertible bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model of discontinuous canopies. Both the forward model and its inversion using a simple technique based on looku…

A Mixture Modeling Approach to Estimate Vegetation Parameters for Heterogeneous Canopies in Remote Sensing

In this article, we describe a reflectance model which parametrizes the reflectance of vegetation canopies from optical properties of leaves and soil, and dominant canopy structural parameters. The model assumes certain principles of geometric models, for example, that sensor integrates the radiance reflected from three components, plant, shaded soil, and illuminated soil. Its inversion provides compositional information of the ground surface that is linked with the interpretation of the linear spectral mixture modeling (LSMM). This model also offers the potential for retrieving other meaningful biophysical properties such as LAI. The model has been tested on simulated spectra of spectral m…

Monitoring barley and corn growth from remote sensing data at field scale

Vegetation indices have been used for operational quantitative monitoring of vegetation. Here, corn and barley cultures have been used to relate meaningful biophysical parameters such as dry biomass and Crop Growth Rate (CGR) to the well-established Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We explain these relationships by means of the use of the Light Use Efficiency (LUE) models, based on the positive relation between primary production and Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (APAR). In these models we introduce NDVI as a linear estimator of f APAR. Experimental data over corn and barley show that dry biomass is linearly related to the Time-Integrated Value of the NDVI (TIND…

A SIMPLIFIED ALGORITHM FOR THE EVALUATION OF FROST-AFFECTED CITRUS

Characterizing land condition variability in Ferlo, Senegal (2001–2009) using multi-temporal 1-km Apparent Green Cover (AGC) SPOT Vegetation data

Abstract The ecosystem state or ‘land condition’ can be characterized by a set of attributes, which show variations at different temporal scales. A multi-resolution analysis (MRA) based on the wavelet transform (WT) has been implemented to examine the land condition of a dryland region in Ferlo (Senegal) over the period 2001–2009. This methodology has proven to be useful for smoothing time series while considering those temporal resolutions that incorporate information about the vegetation dynamics. For this purpose, time series of the 1-km Apparent Green Cover (AGC) from the 10-day composites SPOT Vegetation (VGT) data are analyzed. Two relevant outputs from the MRA, A 1 (de-noised) and th…

Vegetation cover seasonal changes assessment from TM imagery in a semi-arid landscape

This work evaluates the suitability of spectral mixture analysis (SMA) methods to assess vegetation cover seasonal changes in a desertification context. Our main interest is to produce remotely sensed derived maps, sensitive to vegetation activity and quite independent of the soil background. A further aim is to analyse the inter-annual variations of this magnitude for different natural vegetation species, in response to seasonal and climatic changes. Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) was obtained using a Variable Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (VESMA) technique. The aim is to identify the main vegetation cover and lithological units and decompose them in separate stages. The use of sp…

Prototyping of Land-SAF leaf area index algorithm with VEGETATION and MODIS data over Europe

Abstract The Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (Land-SAF) aims to provide land surface variables for the meteorological and environmental science communities from EUMETSAT satellites. This study assesses the performance of a simplified (i.e. random distribution of vegetation is assumed) version of the Land-SAF algorithm for the estimation of Leaf Area Index (LAI) when prototyped with VEGETATION (processed in CYCLOPES program) and MODIS reflectances. The prototype estimates of LAI are evaluated both by comparison with validated CYCLOPES and MODIS LAI products derived from the same sensors and directly through comparison with ground-based estimates. Emphasis is given on …

A generalized soil-adjusted vegetation index

Operational monitoring of vegetative cover by remote sensing currently involves the utilisation of vegetation indices (VIs), most of them being functions of the reflectance in red (R) and near-infrared (NIR) spectral bands. A generalized soil-adjusted vegetation index (GESAVI), theoretically based on a simple vegetation canopy model, is introduced. It is defined in terms of the soil line parameters (A and B) as: GESAVI=(NIRBRA)/(R+Z), where Z is related to the red reflectance at the cross point between the soil line and vegetation isolines. As Z is a soil adjustment coefficient, this new index can be considered as belonging to the SAVI family. In order to analyze the GESAVI sensitivity to s…

Interannual vineyard crop variability in the Castilla–La Mancha region during the period 1991–1996 with Landsat Thematic Mapper images

The vineyard crop is considered an indicator of vegetation cover processes in the Castilla–La Mancha region, as the crop has undergone far-reaching changes in the last ten years: abandonment, removal of vineyards and replacement with other crops such as cereal. The so-called ‘Change detection’ is a process that allows identification of differences in the state of the vineyard by observing it at different times. Essentially, it involves the ability to quantify temporal effects using multi-temporal datasets. The aim of this study is to analyse the vineyard variability during the period 1991–1996 using different Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images belonging to an identified period that highl…

Linear spectral mixture modelling to estimate vegetation amount from optical spectral data

Abstract Spectral mixture modelling has developed in recent years as a suitable remote sensing tool for analysing the biophysical and compositional character of ground surfaces. In this paper the potentiality of the linear spectral mixture model to extract vegetation related parameters from 0·4-2·5 μm reflectance data has been tested. High spectral resolution reflectance measurements of soil-plant mixtures with different soil colour and plant densities were carried out in a laboratory experiment. The constrained least-squares and the factor analysis unmixing procedures were applied to generate endmember fractions of the components present in the mixtures and to test the validity of the mode…

The Satellite Application Facility for Land Surface Analysis

Information on land surface properties finds applications in a range of areas related to weather forecasting, environmental research, hazard management and climate monitoring. Remotely sensed observations yield the only means of supplying land surface information with adequate time sampling and a wide spatial coverage. The aim of the Satellite Application Facility for Land Surface Analysis (Land-SAF) is to take full advantage of remotely sensed data to support land, land-atmosphere and biosphere applications, with emphasis on the development and implementation of algorithms that allow operational use of data from European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMET…