Comparison of methods to estimate LAI from remote sensing in maize canopies by inversion of 1-D and 3-D models

The inversion of canopy reflectance models is a procedure widely employed for the retrieval of LAI from remote sensing. However the accuracy of the estimates depends on a range of factors, most notably the realism of the canopy representation of the models employed and the a priori knowledge of some vegetation characteristics. The objective of the present work was to compare the performances and the operational limitations of the use of two contrasting type of radiative transfer models: a classical one-dimensional canopy reflectance model, PROSPECT+SAIL (PROSAIL) and a three-dimensional dynamic maize model (Lopez-Lozano et al., 2007) having greater realism in the description of the canopy s…