0000000000213307
AUTHOR
Belen Franch
Evaluation of the MODIS Albedo product over a heterogeneous agricultural area
In this article, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MODIS Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function BRDF/Albedo product MCD43 is evaluated over a heterogeneous agricultural area in the framework of the Earth Observation: Optical Data Calibration and Information Extraction EODIX project campaign, which was developed in Barrax Spain in June 2011. In this method, two models, the RossThick-LiSparse-Reciprocal RTLSR which corresponds to the MODIS BRDF algorithm and the RossThick-Maignan-LiSparse-Reciprocal RTLSR-HS, were tested over airborne data by processing high-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner AHS sensor. During the campaign, airborne im…
Temporal analysis of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters to detect changes in the Iberian land cover between 1981 and 2001
In past decades, the Iberian Peninsula has been shown to have suffered vegetation changes such as desertification and reforestation. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) parameters, estimated from data acquired by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite series, are particularly adapted to assess these changes. This work presents an application of the yearly land-cover dynamics (YLCD) methodology to analyse the behaviour of the vegetation, which consists of a combined multitemporal study of the NDVI and LST parameters on a yearly basis. Throughout the 1…
Using NASA'S Long Term Data Record version 3 for the monitoring of land surface vegetation
Numerous datasets have been made available for the observation of our planet from space. The aim of this work is the observation of changes in vegetation, through the use of a recent remote sensing dataset, NASA's Long Term Data Record (LTDR). Several authors have pointed out that vegetation monitoring benefits of the simultaneous use of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST). Therefore, this work presents the procedure developed to monitor vegetation with the LTDR dataset, using both NDVI and LST parameters. This procedure includes data preprocessing (estimation of NDVI and LST, orbital drift correction, atmospherically contaminated data reconstruc…
Analysis of directional effects on atmospheric correction
Abstract Atmospheric correction in the Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) spectral range of remotely sensed data is significantly simplified if we assume a Lambertian target. However, natural surfaces are anisotropic. Therefore, this assumption will introduce an error in surface directional reflectance estimates and consequently in the estimation of vegetation indexes such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the surface albedo retrieval. In this paper we evaluate the influence of directional effects on the atmospheric correction and its impact in the NDVI and albedo estimation. First, we derived the NDVI and surface albedo from data corrected assuming a Lambertian surface…
A method to estimate soil moisture from Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) and ASTER data: Application to SEN2FLEX and SEN3EXP campaigns
Abstract In this paper the soil moisture is estimated at airborne level and at satellite level by combining remotely sensed images with in situ measurements. At airborne level we process high-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor, and at satellite level we compute images acquired with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). The study has been accomplished in the framework of two field campaigns in the Barrax region (Spain): the SEN2FLEX (SENtinel-2 and FLuorescence EXperiment) campaign which was developed in July of 2005 and the SEN3EXP (Sentinel-3 Experiment) campaign which was carried out in June of 2009. The me…
The ARYA crop yield forecasting algorithm: Application to the main wheat exporting countries
Abstract Wheat is the most important commodity traded in the international food market. Thus, accurate and timely information on wheat production can help mitigate food price fluctuations. Within the existing operational regional and global scale agricultural monitoring systems that provide information on global crop yield and area forecasts, there are still fundamental gaps: #1. Lack of quantitative Earth Observation (EO) derived crop information, #2. Lack of global but detailed (national or subnational level) and timely crop production forecasts and #3. Lack of information on forecast uncertainties. In this study we present the Agriculture Remotely-sensed Yield Algorithm (ARYA) an EO-base…
Forecasting Wheat Yield Using Remote Sensing: The ARYA Forecasting System
In this study we present a model to forecast wheat yield based on the evolution of the Difference Vegetation Index (DVI) and the Growing Degree Days (GDD), presented in Franch et al. (2015), but adapted to Franch et al. (2019) model. Additionally, we explore how the Land Surface Temperature (LST) can be included into the model and if this parameter adds any value to the model when combined with the optical information. This study is applied to MODIS data at 1km resolution to monitor the national and state level yield of winter wheat in the United States and Ukraine from 2001 to 2019.
Land surface emissivity retrieval from airborne sensor over urban areas
Abstract In this paper we compare three different methodologies to retrieve land surface emissivity (LSE) over urban areas: the NDVI thresholds method, the temperature and emissivity separation (TES) algorithm and the temperature independent spectral indices (TISI) algorithm. The methodologies were applied to the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) imagery acquired during the Dual-use European Security IR Experiment 2008 (DESIREX 2008) experimental campaign over the city of Madrid (Spain). The images have a spatial resolution of 4 m. The retrieved values are compared to in situ data measured during the campaign at 4 sites. Results show a good performance of the TISI and the TES algorithms …
Atmospheric correction of optical imagery from MODIS and Reanalysis atmospheric products
article i nfo In this paper we analyze the differences obtained in the atmospheric correction of optical imagery covering bands located in the Visible and Near Infra-Red (VNIR), Short-Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) and Themal-Infrared (TIR) spectral regions when atmospheric profiles extracted from different sources are used. In particular, three sensors were used, Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER) and Landsat5 Thematic Mapper (TM), whereas four atmospheric profiles sources were considered: i) local soundings launched near the sensor overpass time, ii) Moderate Resolution Radiometer (MODIS) atmospheric profiles…
Surface temperature in the context of FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) mission
It has been demonstrated that the spectrum of fluorescence emission is dependent on leaf temperature, thus there is a need for thermal information in order to interpret fluorescence signals. Temperature is also related to transpiration and stomata closure, which affects CO2 uptake and fluorescence. Therefore temperature measurements help to confirm the trends observed in fluorescence measurements. While fluorescence is immediately and uniquely related to photosynthesis, temperature provides additional information about plant status and instantaneous energy/water fluxes between plants and the atmosphere. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the role of surface temperature in the con…
Thermal remote sensing from Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner data in the framework of the SPARC and SEN2FLEX projects: an overview
Abstract. The AHS (Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner) instrument has 80 spectral bands covering the visible and near infrared (VNIR), short wave infrared (SWIR), mid infrared (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) spectral range. The instrument is operated by Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aerospacial (INTA), and it has been involved in several field campaigns since 2004. This paper presents an overview of the work performed with the AHS thermal imagery provided in the framework of the SPARC and SEN2FLEX campaigns, carried out respectively in 2004 and 2005 over an agricultural area in Spain. The data collected in both campaigns allowed for the first time the development and testing of algorithms for …
Thermal remote sensing in the framework of the SEN2FLEX project: field measurements, airborne data and applications
A description of thermal radiometric field measurements carried out in the framework of the European project SENtinel-2 and Fluorescence Experiment (SEN2FLEX) is presented. The field campaign was developed in the region of Barrax (Spain) during June and July 2005. The purpose of the thermal measurements was to retrieve biogeophysical parameters such as land surface emissivity (LSE) and temperature (LST) to validate airborne-based methodologies and to characterize different surfaces. Thermal measurements were carried out using two multiband field radiometers and several broadband field radiometers, pointing at different targets. High-resolution images acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral…
Improving the timeliness of winter wheat production forecast in the United States of America, Ukraine and China using MODIS data and NCAR Growing Degree Day information
Abstract Wheat is the most important cereal crop traded on international markets and winter wheat constitutes approximately 80% of global wheat production. Thus, accurate and timely production forecasts are critical for making informed agricultural policies and investments, as well as increasing market efficiency and stability. Becker-Reshef et al. (2010) developed an empirical generalized model for forecasting winter wheat production. Their approach combined BRDF-corrected daily surface reflectance from Moderate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) with detailed official crop statistics and crop type masks. It is based on the relationship between the Nor…
Emissivity mapping over urban areas using a classification-based approach: Application to the Dual-use European Security IR Experiment (DESIREX)
Abstract In this work a methodology to provide an emissivity map of an urban area is presented. The methodology is applied to the city of Madrid (Spain) using data provided by the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) in 2008. From the data a classification map with twelve different urban materials was created. Each material was then characterized by a different emissivity, whose values were obtained from the application of the TES algorithm to in situ measurements and values extracted from the ASTER spectral library. This new emissivity map could be used as a basis for determining the temperature of the city and to understand the urban heat island effect in terms of spatial distribution and…
Mapping sub-pixel burnt percentage using AVHRR data. Application to the Alcalaten area in Spain
The purpose of this work is to estimate at sub-pixel scale the percentage of burnt land using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer AVHRR through a simple approach. This methodology is based on multi-temporal spectral mixture analysis MSMA, which uses a normalized difference vegetation index NDVI and a land-surface temperature LST image as input bands. The area of study is located in the Alcalaten region in Castellon Spain, a typical semi-arid Mediterranean region. The results have shown an extension of approximately 55 km2 affected by fire, which is only 5% lower than the statistic reports provided by the Environmental Ministry of Spain. Finally, we include a map of the area showing…
Fluorescence estimation in the framework of the CEFLES2 campaign
International audience; Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChF) is a relevant indicator of the actual plant physiological status. In this article different methods to measure ChF from remote sensing are evaluated: The Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (FLD), theFluorescence Radiative Method (FRM) and the improved Fraunhofer Line Discrimination (iFLD). The three methods have been applied to data acquired in the framework of the CarboEurope, FLEX and Sentinel-2 (CEFLES2) campaign in Les Landes, France in September 2007. Comparing with in situ measurements, the results indicate that the methods that provide the best results are the FLD and the iFLD with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 0.4 and 0.5 mW m-…
Quantifying unpredictability: A multiple-model approach based on satellite imagery data from Mediterranean ponds.
Fluctuations in environmental parameters are increasingly being recognized as essential features of any habitat. The quantification of whether environmental fluctuations are prevalently predictable or unpredictable is remarkably relevant to understanding the evolutionary responses of organisms. However, when characterizing the relevant features of natural habitats, ecologists typically face two problems: (1) gathering long-term data and (2) handling the hard-won data. This paper takes advantage of the free access to long-term recordings of remote sensing data (27 years, Landsat TM/ETM+) to assess a set of environmental models for estimating environmental predictability. The case study inclu…
Evaluation of the AVHRR surface reflectance long term data record between 1984 and 2011
Abstract The long-term data record (LTDR) from the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) provides daily surface reflectance with global coverage from the 1980s to present day, making it a unique source of information for the study of land surface properties and their long-term dynamics. Surface reflectance is a critical input for the generation of products such as vegetation indices, albedo, and land cover. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to quantify its uncertainties to better understand how they might propagate into downstream products. Due to the prolonged length of the surface reflectance LTDR and previous unavailability of a well calibrated reference, no comprehensive …
CEFLES2: The remote sensing component to quantify photosynthetic efficiency from the leaf to the region by measuring sun-induced fluorescence in the oxygen absorption bands
The CEFLES2 campaign during the Carbo Europe Regional Experiment Strategy was designed to provide simultaneous airborne measurements of solar induced fluorescence and CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes. It was combined with extensive ground-based quantification of leaf- and canopy-level processes in support of ESA's Candidate Earth Explorer Mission of the "Fluorescence Explorer" (FLEX). The aim of this campaign was to test if fluorescence signal detected from an airborne platform can be used to improve estimates of plant mediated exchange on the mesoscale. Canopy fluorescence was quantified from four airborne platforms using a combination of novel sensors: (i) the prototype ai…
An Overview of the Regional Experiments for Land-Atmosphere Exchanges 2012 (Reflex 2012) Campaign
The REFLEX 2012 campaign was initiated as part of a training course on the organization of an airborne campaign to support advancement of the understanding of land-atmosphere interaction processes. This article describes the campaign, its objectives and observations, remote as well as in situ. The observations took place at the experimental Las Tiesas farm in an agricultural area in the south of Spain. During the period of ten days, measurements were made to capture the main processes controlling the local and regional land-atmosphere exchanges. Apart from multi-temporal, multi-directional and multi-spatial space-borne and airborne observations, measurements of the local meteorology, energy…