A note on upscaling coniferous needle spectra to shoot spectral albedo

Miina Rautiainen*, Matti Mõttus, Lucia Yáñez-Rausell, Lucie Homolová, Zbyněk Malenovský, Michael E. Schaepman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mutual shading of needles in coniferous shoots and small-scale variations in needle area density both within and between shoots violate conventional assumptions used in the definition of the elementary volume in radiative transfer models. In this paper, we test the hypothesis if it is possible to scale needle spectral albedo up to shoot spectral albedo using only one structural parameter: the spherically averaged shoot silhouette to total area ratio (STAR). To test the hypothesis, we measured both structural and spectral properties of ten Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) shoots and their needles. Our results indicate that it is possible to upscale from needle to shoot spectral albedo using STAR. The upscaling model performed best in the VIS and SWIR regions, and for shoots with high STAR values. As STAR is linearly related to photon recollision probability, it is also possible to apply the upscaling model as integral part of radiative transfer models.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)469-474
Number of pages6
JournalRemote Sensing of Environment
Volume117
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2012
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Photon recollision probability
  • Pinus sylvestris
  • Spectral invariants
  • STAR

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