On the demands on imaging spectrometry for the monitoring of global vegetation fluorescence from space

Vegetation fluorescence when measured from space contributes only a tiny fraction of the signal coming on top of the reflected radiance by the Earth surface and the atmosphere. As a consequence, imaging spectrometers have to provide sufficient throughput and radiometric accuracy to enable accurate global monitoring of the daily to seasonal variations of the Earth's vegetation breath, which is particularly challenging if ground resolutions of a few hundred meters are targeted. Since fluorescence retrieval algorithms have to make corrections for atmospheric effects, it is necessary to provide sufficient spectral resolution, so that signal alterations due to the main parameters such as surface…