A double peak in the seasonality of California's photosynthesis as observed from space

Abstract. Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has been shown to be a powerful proxy for photosynthesis and gross primary productivity (GPP). The recently launched TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) features the required spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio to retrieve SIF from space. Here, we present a downscaling method to obtain 500 m spatial resolution SIF over California. We report daily values based on a 14 d window. TROPOMI SIF data show a strong correspondence with daily GPP estimates at AmeriFlux sites across multiple ecosystems in California. We find a linear relationship between SIF and GPP that is largely invariant across ecosystems with an intercept that is not significantly different from zero. Measurements of SIF from TROPOMI agree with MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices – the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and near-infrared reflectance of vegetation index (NIRv) – at annual timescales but indicate different temporal dynamics at monthly and daily timescales. TROPOMI SIF data show a double peak in the seasonality of photosynthesis, a feature that is not present in the MODIS vegetation indices. The different seasonality in the vegetation indices may be due to a clear-sky bias in the vegetation indices, whereas previous work has shown SIF to have a low sensitivity to clouds and to detect the downregulation of photosynthesis even when plants appear green. We further decompose the spatiotemporal patterns in the SIF data based on land cover. The double peak in the seasonality of California's photosynthesis is due to two processes that are out of phase: grasses, chaparral, and oak savanna ecosystems show an April maximum, while evergreen forests peak in June. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis corroborates the phase offset and spatial patterns driving the double peak. The EOF analysis further indicates that two spatiotemporal patterns explain 84 % of the variability in the SIF data. Results shown here are promising for obtaining global GPP at sub-kilometer spatial scales and identifying the processes driving carbon uptake.

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A double peak in the seasonality of California's photosynthesis as observed from space

10.5194/bg-2019-387 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander J. Turner ◽

Philipp Köhler ◽

Troy S. Magney ◽

Christian Frankenberg ◽

Inez Fung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Temporal Patterns ◽

Eof Analysis ◽

Double Peak ◽

Evergreen Forests ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Low Sensitivity

Abstract. Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) has been shown to be a powerful proxy for photosynthesis and gross primary productivity (GPP). The recently launched TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) features the required spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio to retrieve SIF from space. Here we present an oversampling and downscaling method to obtain 500-m spatial resolution SIF over California. We report daily values based on a 14-day window. TROPOMI SIF data show a strong correspondence with daily GPP estimates at AmeriFlux sites across multiple ecosystems in California. We find a linear relationship between SIF and GPP that is largely invariant across ecosystems with an intercept that is not significantly different from zero. Measurements of SIF from TROPOMI agree with MODIS vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, and NIRv) at annual timescales but indicate different temporal dynamics at monthly and daily timescales. TROPOMI SIF data show a double peak in the seasonality of photosynthesis, a feature that is not present in the MODIS vegetation indices. The different seasonality in the vegetation indices may be due to a clear-sky bias in the vegetation indices, whereas SIF has a low sensitivity to clouds and can detect the downregulation of photosynthesis even when plants appear green. We further decompose the spatio-temporal patterns in the SIF data based on land cover. The double peak in the seasonality of California's photosynthesis is due to two processes that are out of phase: grasses, chaparral, and oak savanna ecosystems show an April maximum while evergreen forests peak in June. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis corroborates the phase offset and spatial patterns driving the double peak. The EOF analysis further indicates that two spatio-temporal patterns explain 84 % of the variability in the SIF data. Results shown here are promising for obtaining global GPP at sub-kilometer spatial scales and identifying the processes driving carbon uptake.

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Using remote sensing for identification of late-season grass weed patches in wheat

Weed Science ◽

10.1614/ws-05-54.2.346 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 54 (02) ◽

pp. 346-353 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Francisca López-Granados ◽

Montse Jurado-Expósito ◽

Jose M. Peña-Barragán ◽

Luis García-Torres

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Field Research ◽

Aerial Images ◽

Wild Oat ◽

Late Season ◽

High Resolution Satellite Imagery ◽

Grass Weed

Field research was conducted to determine the potential of hyperspectral and multispectral imagery for late-season discrimination and mapping of grass weed infestations in wheat. Differences in reflectance between weed-free wheat and wild oat, canarygrass, and ryegrass were statistically significant in most 25-nm-wide wavebands in the 400- and 900-nm spectrum, mainly due to their differential maturation. Visible (blue, B; green, G; red, R) and near infrared (NIR) wavebands and five vegetation indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), R/B, NIR-R and (R − G)/(R + G), showed potential for discriminating grass weeds and wheat. The efficiency of these wavebands and indices were studied by using color and color-infrared aerial images taken over three naturally infested fields. In StaCruz, areas infested with wild oat and canarygrass patches were discriminated using the indices R, NIR, and NDVI with overall accuracies (OA) of 0.85 to 0.90. In Florida–West, areas infested with wild oat, canarygrass, and ryegrass were discriminated with OA from 0.85 to 0.89. In Florida–East, for the discrimination of the areas infested with wild oat patches, visible wavebands and several vegetation indices provided OA of 0.87 to 0.96. Estimated grass weed area ranged from 56 to 71%, 43 to 47%, and 69 to 80% of the field in the three locations, respectively, with per-class accuracies from 0.87 to 0.94. NDVI was the most efficient vegetation index, with a highly accurate performance in all locations. Our results suggest that mapping grass weed patches in wheat is feasible with high-resolution satellite imagery or aerial photography acquired 2 to 3 wk before crop senescence.

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Using Near-Infrared-Enabled Digital Repeat Photography to Track Structural and Physiological Phenology in Mediterranean Tree–Grass Ecosystems

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs10081293 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 1293 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Yunpeng Luo ◽

Tarek S. El-Madany ◽

Gianluca Filippa ◽

Xuanlong Ma ◽

Bernhard Ahrens ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Growing Season ◽

Plant Phenology ◽

Mediterranean Ecosystem ◽

Near Infrared Reflectance ◽

Seasonally Dry ◽

Growing Season Length ◽

Dry Down

Tree–grass ecosystems are widely distributed. However, their phenology has not yet been fully characterized. The technique of repeated digital photographs for plant phenology monitoring (hereafter referred as PhenoCam) provide opportunities for long-term monitoring of plant phenology, and extracting phenological transition dates (PTDs, e.g., start of the growing season). Here, we aim to evaluate the utility of near-infrared-enabled PhenoCam for monitoring the phenology of structure (i.e., greenness) and physiology (i.e., gross primary productivity—GPP) at four tree–grass Mediterranean sites. We computed four vegetation indexes (VIs) from PhenoCams: (1) green chromatic coordinates (GCC), (2) normalized difference vegetation index (CamNDVI), (3) near-infrared reflectance of vegetation index (CamNIRv), and (4) ratio vegetation index (CamRVI). GPP is derived from eddy covariance flux tower measurement. Then, we extracted PTDs and their uncertainty from different VIs and GPP. The consistency between structural (VIs) and physiological (GPP) phenology was then evaluated. CamNIRv is best at representing the PTDs of GPP during the Green-up period, while CamNDVI is best during the Dry-down period. Moreover, CamNIRv outperforms the other VIs in tracking growing season length of GPP. In summary, the results show it is promising to track structural and physiology phenology of seasonally dry Mediterranean ecosystem using near-infrared-enabled PhenoCam. We suggest using multiple VIs to better represent the variation of GPP.

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Evaluation and Normalization of Topographic Effects on Vegetation Indices

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12142290 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (14) ◽

pp. 2290

Author(s):

Rui Chen ◽

Gaofei Yin ◽

Guoxiang Liu ◽

Jing Li ◽

Aleixandre Verger

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Topographic Effects ◽

Terrestrial Vegetation ◽

Mountainous Areas ◽

Near Infrared Reflectance ◽

Illumination Condition ◽

Vegetation Monitoring ◽

Local Illumination

The normalization of topographic effects on vegetation indices (VIs) is a prerequisite for their proper use in mountainous areas. We assessed the topographic effects on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), the soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), and the near-infrared reflectance of terrestrial vegetation (NIRv) calculated from Sentinel-2. The evaluation was based on two criteria: the correlation with local illumination condition and the dependence on aspect. Results show that topographic effects can be neglected for the NDVI, while they heavily influence the SAVI, EVI, and NIRv: the local illumination condition explains 19.85%, 25.37%, and 26.69% of the variation of the SAVI, EVI, and NIRv, respectively, and the coefficients of variation across different aspects are, respectively, 8.13%, 10.46%, and 14.07%. We demonstrated the applicability of existing correction methods, including statistical-empirical (SE), sun-canopy-sensor with C-correction (SCS + C), and path length correction (PLC), dedicatedly designed for reflectance, to normalize topographic effects on VIs. Our study will benefit vegetation monitoring with VIs over mountainous areas.

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Uncertainty of Vegetation Green-Up Date Estimated from Vegetation Indices Due to Snowmelt at Northern Middle and High Latitudes

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12010190 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 190 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ruyin Cao ◽

Yan Feng ◽

Xilong Liu ◽

Miaogen Shen ◽

Ji Zhou

Keyword(s):

Western Europe ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

High Latitudes ◽

Large Spatial Scale ◽

Arid Grasslands ◽

Seasonal Snow Cover ◽

Spring Snowmelt

Vegetation green-up date (GUD), an important phenological characteristic, is usually estimated from time-series of satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data at regional and global scales. However, GUD estimates in seasonally snow-covered areas suffer from the effect of spring snowmelt on the NDVI signal, hampering our realistic understanding of phenological responses to climate change. Recently, two snow-free vegetation indices were developed for GUD detection: the normalized difference phenology index (NDPI) and normalized difference greenness index (NDGI). Both were found to improve GUD detection in the presence of spring snowmelt. However, these indices were tested at several field phenological camera sites and carbon flux sites, and a detailed evaluation on their performances at the large spatial scale is still lacking, which limits their applications globally. In this study, we employed NDVI, NDPI, and NDGI to estimate GUD at northern middle and high latitudes (north of 40° N) and quantified the snowmelt-induced uncertainty of GUD estimations from the three vegetation indices (VIs) by considering the changes in VI values caused by snowmelt. Results showed that compared with NDVI, both NDPI and NDGI improve the accuracy of GUD estimation with smaller GUD uncertainty in the areas below 55° N, but at higher latitudes (55°N-70° N), all three indices exhibit substantially larger GUD uncertainty. Furthermore, selecting which vegetation index to use for GUD estimation depends on vegetation types. All three indices performed much better for deciduous forests, and NDPI performed especially well (5.1 days for GUD uncertainty). In the arid and semi-arid grasslands, GUD estimations from NDGI are more reliable (i.e., smaller uncertainty) than NDP-based GUD (e.g., GUD uncertainty values for NDGI vs. NDPI are 4.3 d vs. 7.2 d in Mongolia grassland and 6.7 d vs. 9.8 d in Central Asia grassland), whereas in American prairie, NDPI performs slightly better than NDGI (GUD uncertainty for NDPI vs. NDGI is 3.8 d vs. 4.7 d). In central and western Europe, reliable GUD estimations from NDPI and NDGI were acquired only in those years without snowfall before green-up. This study provides important insights into the application of, and uncertainty in, snow-free vegetation indices for GUD estimation at large spatial scales, particularly in areas with seasonal snow cover.

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Evaluation of a Low-cost Camera for Agricultural Applications

Journal of Experimental Agriculture International ◽

10.9734/jeai/2019/v32i530117 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abdon Francisco Aureliano Netto ◽

Rodrigo Nogueira Martins ◽

Guilherme Silverio Aquino De Souza ◽

Fernando Ferreira Lima Dos Santos ◽

Jorge Tadeu Fim Rosas

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Low Cost ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Paspalum Notatum ◽

Crop Canopy ◽

N Application ◽

Satisfactory Accuracy ◽

Agricultural Applications

This study aimed to modify a webcam by replacing its near-infrared (NIR) blocking filter to a low-cost red, green and blue (RGB) filter for obtaining NIR images and to evaluate its performance in two agricultural applications. First, the sensitivity of the webcam to differentiate normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) levels through five nitrogen (N) doses applied to the Batatais grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) was verified. Second, images from maize crops were processed using different vegetation indices, and thresholding methods with the aim of determining the best method for segmenting crop canopy from the soil. Results showed that the webcam sensor was capable of detecting the effect of N doses through different NDVI values at 7 and 21 days after N application. In the second application, the use of thresholding methods, such as Otsu, Manual, and Bayes when previously processed by vegetation indices showed satisfactory accuracy (up to 73.3%) in separating the crop canopy from the soil.

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Assessing Hemlock Decline Using Visible and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Indices Comparison and Algorithm Development

Applied Spectroscopy ◽

10.1366/0003702054280595 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 836-843 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Jennifer Pontius ◽

Richard Hallett ◽

Mary Martin

Keyword(s):

Linear Regression ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Accuracy Assessment ◽

Stress Index ◽

Regression Equations ◽

Near Infrared Reflectance ◽

Full Spectrum ◽

Hemlock Decline

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy was evaluated for its effectiveness at predicting pre-visual decline in eastern hemlock trees. An ASD FieldSpec Pro FR field spectroradiometer measuring 2100 contiguous 1-nm-wide channels from 350 nm to 2500 nm was used to collect spectra from fresh hemlock foliage. Full spectrum partial least squares (PLS) regression equations and reduced stepwise linear regression equations were compared. The best decline predictive model was a 6-term linear regression equation ( R2 = 0.71, RMSE = 0.591) based on: Carter Miller Stress Index (R694/R760), Derivative Chlorophyll Index (FD705/FD723), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ((R800 – R680)/(R800 + R680)), R950, R1922, and FD1388. Accuracy assessment showed that this equation predicted an 11-class decline rating with a 1-class tolerance accuracy of 96% and differentiated healthy trees from those in very early decline with 72% accuracy. These results indicate that narrow-band sensors could be developed to detect very early stages of hemlock decline, before visual symptoms are apparent. This capability would enable land managers to identify early hemlock woolly adelgid infestations and monitor forest health over large areas of the landscape.

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Seasonal dynamics of lingonberry and blueberry spectra

Silva Fennica ◽

10.14214/sf.10150 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 53 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Petri Forsström ◽

Jouni Peltoniemi ◽

Miina Rautiainen

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Reference Data ◽

Leaf Growth ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Growing Season ◽

Moisture Stress ◽

Stress Index ◽

Infrared Spectral

Accurate mapping of the spatial distribution of understory species from spectral images requires ground reference data which represent the prevailing phenological stage at the time of image acquisition. We measured the spectral bidirectional reflectance factors (BRFs, 350â2500 nm) at varying view angles for lingonberry ( L.) and blueberry ( L.) throughout the growing season of 2017 using Finnish Geospatial Research Instituteâs FIGIFIGO field goniometer. Additionally, we measured spectra of leaves and berries of both species, and flowers of lingonberry. Both lingonberry and blueberry showed seasonality in visible and near-infrared spectral regions which was linked to occurrences of leaf growth, flowering, berrying, and leaf senescence. The seasonality of spectra differed between species due to different phenologies (evergreen vs. deciduous). Vegetation indices, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), moisture stress index (MSI), plant senescence reflectance index (PSRI), and red-edge inflection point (REIP2), showed characteristic seasonal trends. NDVI and PSRI were sensitive to the presence of flowers and berries of lingonberry, while with blueberry the effects were less evident. Off-nadir observations supported differentiating the dwarf shrub species from each other but showed little improvement for detection of flowers and berries. Lingonberry and blueberry can be identified by their spectral signatures if ground reference data are available over the entire growing season. The spectral data measured in this study are reposited in the publicly open SPECCHIO Spectral Information System.Vaccinium vitis-idaeaVaccinium myrtillus

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Optimal Spatial Resolution for the Detection and Discrimination of Archaeological Proxies in Areas with Spectral Heterogeneity

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12010136 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 136 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Athos Agapiou

Keyword(s):

Spatial Resolution ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Spectral Band ◽

Vegetation Indices ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Area Of Interest ◽

First Case

Subsurface targets can be detected from space-borne sensors via archaeological proxies, known in the literature as cropmarks. A topic that has been limited in its investigation in the past is the identification of the optimal spatial resolution of satellite sensors, which can better support image extraction of archaeological proxies, especially in areas with spectral heterogeneity. In this study, we investigated the optimal spatial resolution (OSR) for two different cases studies. OSR refers to the pixel size in which the local variance, of a given area of interest (e.g., archaeological proxy), is minimized, without losing key details necessary for adequate interpretation of the cropmarks. The first case study comprises of a simulated spectral dataset that aims to model a shallow buried archaeological target cultivated on top with barley crops, while the second case study considers an existing site in Cyprus, namely the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos”. The overall methodology adopted in the study is composed of five steps: firstly, we defined the area of interest (Step 1), then we selected the local mean-variance value as the optimization criterion of the OSR (Step 2), while in the next step (Step 3), we spatially aggregated (upscale) the initial spectral datasets for both case studies. In our investigation, the spectral range was limited to the visible and near-infrared part of the spectrum. Based on these findings, we determined the OSR (Step 4), and finally, we verified the results (Step 5). The OSR was estimated for each spectral band, namely the blue, green, red, and near-infrared bands, while the study was expanded to also include vegetation indices, such as the Simple Ratio (SR), the Atmospheric Resistance Vegetation Index (ARVI), and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The outcomes indicated that the OSR could minimize the local spectral variance, thus minimizing the spectral noise, and, consequently, better support image processing for the extraction of archaeological proxies in areas with high spectral heterogeneity.

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Inter-Comparison of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Measured from Different Footprint Sizes in Cropland

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12182980 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (18) ◽

pp. 2980

Author(s):

Jae-Hyun Ryu ◽

Sang-Il Na ◽

Jaeil Cho

Keyword(s):

Vegetation Index ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Correlation Coefficients ◽

The Other ◽

Terrestrial Vegetation ◽

Pixel Size ◽

Spectrometer Data ◽

Sentinel 2

Remote sensing techniques using visible and near-infrared wavelengths are useful for monitoring terrestrial vegetation. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a widely used proxy of vegetation conditions, and it has been measured at various footprint sizes using satellite, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and ground-installed sensors. The goal of this study was to analyze the spatial characteristics of NDVI data by comparing the values obtained at different footprint sizes. In particular, the NDVI was evaluated in garlic and onion fields that featured ridges and furrows. The evaluation was performed using data from a leaf spectrometer, field spectrometers, ground-installed spectral reflectance sensors, a multispectral camera onboard a UAV, and Sentinel-2 satellites. The correlation coefficients between NDVIs evaluated from the various sensors (excluding the satellite-mounted sensors) ranged from 0.628 to 0.944. The UAV-based NDVI (NDVIUAV) exhibited the lowest root mean square error (RMSE = 0.088) when compared with field spectrometer data. On the other hand, the satellite-based NDVI data (NDVISentinel-2) were poorly correlated with those obtained from the other sensors as a result of the footprint mismatch. However, by upscaling the NDVIUAV data to the pixel size of Sentinel-2, the comparison was improved, and the following statistics were obtained: correlation coefficient: 0.504–0.785; absolute bias: 0.048–0.078; RMSE: 0.063–0.094. According to the aforementioned results, ground-based NDVI data can be used to validate NDVIUAV data without further processing and NDVIUAV data can be used to validate NDVISentinel-2 data after upscaling to the Sentinel-2 pixel size. Overall, the results presented in this study may be helpful to understand and integrate NDVI data at different spatial scales.

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