A Generic Algorithm to Estimate LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER Variables from SPOT4_HRVIR and Landsat Sensors: Evaluation of the Consistency and Comparison with Ground Measurements

Remote Sensing

Wenjuan Li¹  Marie Weiss¹  Francois Waldner³  Pierre Defourny³  Valerie Demarez⁴  David Morin⁴  Olivier Hagolle⁴  Frédéric Baret¹  Benjamin Koetz²  Olivier Arino²  Magaly Koch² 

[1] INRA-EMMAH UMR 1114, 84914 Avignon, France; E-Mails:INRA-EMMAH UMR 1114, 84914 Avignon, France;;Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 2 Croix du Sud, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; E-Mails:;CESBIO, UMR CNES-CNRS-IRD-UPS, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 4, France; E-Mails:

关键词: LAI;    FAPAR;    FCOVER;    Landsat 8;    SPOT4_HRVIR;    time series;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs71115494

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The leaf area index (LAI) and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green vegetation (FAPAR) are essential climatic variables in surface process models. FCOVER is also important to separate vegetation and soil for energy balance processes. Currently, several LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER satellite products are derived moderate to coarse spatial resolution. The launch of Sentinel-2 in 2015 will provide data at decametric resolution with a high revisit frequency to allow quantifying the canopy functioning at the local to regional scales. The aim of this study is thus to evaluate the performances of a neural network based algorithm to derive LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER products at decametric spatial resolution and high temporal sampling. The algorithm is generic, i.e., it is applied without any knowledge of the landcover. A time series of high spatial resolution SPOT4_HRVIR (16 scenes) and Landsat 8 (18 scenes) images acquired in 2013 over the France southwestern site were used to generate the LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER products. For each sensor and each biophysical variable, a neural network was first trained over PROSPECT+SAIL radiative transfer model simulations of top of canopy reflectance data for green, red, near-infra red and short wave infra-red bands. Our results show a good spatial and temporal consistency between the variables derived from both sensors: almost half the pixels show an absolute difference between SPOT and LANDSAT estimates of lower that 0.5 unit for LAI, and 0.05 unit for FAPAR and FCOVER. Finally, downward-looking digital hemispherical cameras were completed over the main land cover types to validate the accuracy of the products. Results show that the derived products are strongly correlated with the field measurements (R² > 0.79), corresponding to a RMSE = 0.49 for LAI, RMSE = 0.10 (RMSE = 0.12) for black-sky (white sky) FAPAR and RMSE = 0.15 for FCOVER. It is concluded that the proposed generic algorithm provides a good basis to monitor the seasonal variation of the vegetation biophysical variables for important crops at decametric resolution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.