Title
Calibration of a Species-Specific Spectral Vegetation Index for Leaf Area Index (LAI) Monitoring: Example with MODIS Reflectance Time-Series on Eucalyptus Plantations
Abstract
The leaf area index (LAI) is a key characteristic of forest ecosystems. Estimations of LAI from satellite images generally rely on spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) or radiative transfer model (RTM) inversions. We have developed a new and precise method suitable for practical application, consisting of building a species-specific SVI that is best-suited to both sensor and vegetation characteristics. Such an SVI requires calibration on a large number of representative vegetation conditions. We developed a two-step approach: (1) estimation of LAI on a subset of satellite data through RTM inversion; and (2) the calibration of a vegetation index on these estimated LAI. We applied this methodology to Eucalyptus plantations which have highly variable LAI in time and space. Previous results showed that an RTM inversion of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) near-infrared and red reflectance allowed good retrieval performance (R-2 = 0.80, RMSE = 0.41), but was computationally difficult. Here, the RTM results were used to calibrate a dedicated vegetation index (called "EucVI") which gave similar LAI retrieval results but in a simpler way. The R-2 of the regression between measured and EucVI-simulated LAI values on a validation dataset was 0.68, and the RMSE was 0.49. The additional use of stand age and day of year in the SVI equation slightly increased the performance of the index (R-2 = 0.77 and RMSE = 0.41). This simple index opens the way to an easily applicable retrieval of Eucalyptus LAI from MODIS data, which could be used in an operational way.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.3390/rs4123766
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
Field
DocType
remote sensing,eucalypt,EucVI,MOD13Q1,radiative transfer model,PROSAIL
Leaf area index,Thematic Mapper,Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer,Vegetation,Remote sensing,Atmospheric radiative transfer codes,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,Enhanced vegetation index,Geology,Calibration
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
4
12
2072-4292
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
0.65
3
Authors
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Guerric le Maire1316.86
claire marsden270.65
Yann Nouvellon3233.95
joseluiz stape470.65
Flávio Jorge Ponzoni5265.50