scholarly journals Sensitivity of Seven MODIS Vegetation Indices to BRDF Effects during the Amazonian Dry Season

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 1650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caio Arlanche Petri ◽  
Lênio Soares Galvão

We used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, processed by the multi–angle implementation of atmospheric correction (MAIAC) algorithm, to investigate the sensitivity of seven vegetation indices (VIs) to bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) effects in the dry season (June–September) of the Brazilian Amazon. The analysis was first performed over three sites, located from north to south of the Amazon, and then extended into the entire region. We inspected for differences in viewing–illumination parameters and pixel quality retrievals during MODIS data acquisition over the region. By comparing and correlating corrected and non–corrected data for bidirectional effects, we evaluated monthly changes in reflectance and VIs (2000–2014). Finally, we computed the effect size of the BRDF correction using non–parametric Mann–Whitney tests and Cohen’s r metrics. The results showed that the most anisotropic VIs were the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), photochemical reflectance index (PRI), and shortwave infrared normalized difference (SWND). These VIs presented the largest relative changes and the lowest correlation coefficients, between corrected and non–corrected data, because of the large effect size of the BRDF. The least anisotropic VI was the normalized difference water index (NDWI). The anisotropy of these VIs was stronger in the northern Amazon. It increased from the beginning to the end of the dry season, following changes in the relative azimuth angle (RAA) toward the BRDF hotspot in September. The modifications in the relative proportions of backscattering observations used in composite products caused a reflectance increase in all MODIS bands at the end of the dry season, especially in the near infrared (NIR). The reflectance decreased after BRDF correction. Because of the atmospheric effects, the view zenith angle (VZA) of the pixels selected in composite products decreased toward the south of the Amazon. In the southern Amazon, the seasonal amplitude in the solar zenith angle (SZA) reached values close to 18°. For the most anisotropic index, the BRDF correction removed, on average, 30% of the EVI signal in June, and 60% of the EVI signal in September, reducing dry season variations over time. The results reinforce the need for bidirectional correction of MODIS data before the seasonal and inter–annual analyses of the most anisotropic VIs.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Fernando Paz Pellat

It is essential to minimize atmospheric effects on spectral information of remote sensors from space platforms to avoid under estimation of biophysical variables associated with satellite image data. In this paper, a generic algorithm was developed, based on sound theoretical arguments, to analyze time series ISVI spectral vegetation index (vegetation index based on iso-soil curves), thus avoiding the problems associated with the classic design of vegetation indices, where the spectral signal saturates quickly. The results, when applying the algorithm in pixel time series of AVHRR satellite images, showed that reduction and standardization of atmospheric effects in the ISVI was achieved. Using ISVI maximum values in time series (temporal window), a reasonable approximation to atmospheric conditions with minimum or standardized effects was obtained. In conclusion, although the scheme developed failed to eliminate the atmospheric effect on ISVI entirely, it was reduced to a minimum. The algorithm developed was simple enough for operational use, with regard to atmospheric correction methods using radiative model inversions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Wohlfahrt ◽  
Albin Hammerle ◽  
Barbara Rainer ◽  
Florian Haas

<p>Ongoing changes in climate (both in the means and the extremes) are increasingly challenging grapevine production in the province of South Tyrol (Italy). Here we ask the question whether sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) observed remotely from space can detect early warning signs of stress in grapevine and thus help guide mitigation measures.</p><p>Chlorophyll fluorescence refers to light absorbed by chlorophyll molecules that is re-emitted in the red to far-red wavelength region. Previous research at leaf and canopy scale indicated that SIF correlates with the plant photosynthetic uptake of carbon dioxide as it competes for the same energy pool.</p><p>To address this question, we use time series of two down-scaled SIF products (GOME-2 and OCO-2, 2007/14-2018) as well as the original OCO-2 data (2014-2019). As a benchmark, we use several vegetation indices related to canopy greenness, as well as a novel near-infrared radiation-based vegetation index (2000-2019). Meteorological data fields are used to explore possible weather-related causes for observed deviations in remote sensing data. Regional DOC grapevine census data (2000-2019) are used as a reference for the analyses.</p>


Weed Science ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (02) ◽  
pp. 346-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisca López-Granados ◽  
Montse Jurado-Expósito ◽  
Jose M. Peña-Barragán ◽  
Luis García-Torres

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2290
Author(s):  
Rui Chen ◽  
Gaofei Yin ◽  
Guoxiang Liu ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Aleixandre Verger

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Moparthy ◽  
Dominique Carrer ◽  
Xavier Ceamanos

The ability of spatial remote sensing in the visible domain to properly detect the slow transitions in the Earth’s vegetation is often a subject of debate. The reason behind this is that the satellite products often used to calculate vegetation indices such as surface albedo or reflectance, are not always correctly decontaminated from atmospheric effects. In view of the observed decline in vegetation over the Congo during the last decade, this study investigates how effectively satellite-derived variables can contribute to the answering of this question. In this study, we use two satellite-derived surface albedo products, three satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) products, two model-derived AOD products, and synthetic observations from radiative transfer simulations. The study discusses the important discrepancies (of up to 70%) found between these satellite surface albedo products in the visible domain over this region. We conclude therefore that the analysis of trends in vegetation properties based on satellite observations in the visible domain such as NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), calculated from reflectance or albedo variables, is still quite questionable over tropical forest regions such as the Congo. Moreover, this study demonstrates that there is a significant increase (of up to 14%) in total aerosols within the last decade over the Congo. We note that if these changes in aerosol loads are not correctly taken into account in the retrieval of surface albedo, a greenness change of the surface properties (decrease of visible albedo) of around 8% could be artificially detected. Finally, the study also shows that neglecting strong aerosol emissions due to volcano eruptions could lead to an artificial increase of greenness over the Congo of more than 25% in the year of the eruptions and up to 16% during the 2–3 years that follow.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Pereira-Sandoval ◽  
Ana Ruescas ◽  
Patricia Urrego ◽  
Antonio Ruiz-Verdú ◽  
Jesús Delegido ◽  
...  

The atmospheric contribution constitutes about 90 percent of the signal measured by satellite sensors over oceanic and inland waters. Over open ocean waters, the atmospheric contribution is relatively easy to correct as it can be assumed that water-leaving radiance in the near-infrared (NIR) is equal to zero and it can be performed by applying a relatively simple dark-pixel-correction-based type of algorithm. Over inland and coastal waters, this assumption cannot be made since the water-leaving radiance in the NIR is greater than zero due to the presence of water components like sediments and dissolved organic particles. The aim of this study is to determine the most appropriate atmospheric correction processor to be applied on Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Imagery over several types of inland waters. Retrievals obtained from different atmospheric correction processors (i.e., Atmospheric correction for OLI ‘lite’ (ACOLITE), Case 2 Regional Coast Colour (here called C2RCC), Case 2 Regional Coast Colour for Complex waters (here called C2RCCCX), Image correction for atmospheric effects (iCOR), Polynomial-based algorithm applied to MERIS (Polymer) and Sen2Cor or Sentinel 2 Correction) are compared against in situ reflectance measured in lakes and reservoirs in the Valencia region (Spain). Polymer and C2RCC are the processors that give back the best statistics, with coefficients of determination higher than 0.83 and mean average errors less than 0.01. An evaluation of the performance based on water types and single bands–classification based on ranges of in situ chlorophyll-a concentration and Secchi disk depth values- showed that performance of these set of processors is better for relatively complex waters. ACOLITE, iCOR and Sen2Cor had a better performance when applied to meso- and hyper-eutrophic waters, compare with oligotrophic. However, other considerations should also be taken into account, like the elevation of the lakes above sea level, their distance from the sea and their morphology.


Author(s):  
Abdon Francisco Aureliano Netto ◽  
Rodrigo Nogueira Martins ◽  
Guilherme Silverio Aquino De Souza ◽  
Fernando Ferreira Lima Dos Santos ◽  
Jorge Tadeu Fim Rosas

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.


Silva Fennica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Petri Forsström ◽  
Jouni Peltoniemi ◽  
Miina Rautiainen

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, 350–2500 nm) at varying view angles for lingonberry ( L.) and blueberry ( L.) throughout the growing season of 2017 using Finnish Geospatial Research Institute’s 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


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 4353-4365 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lyapustin ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
X. Xiong ◽  
G. Meister ◽  
S. Platnick ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Collection 6 (C6) MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) land and atmosphere data sets are scheduled for release in 2014. C6 contains significant revisions of the calibration approach to account for sensor aging. This analysis documents the presence of systematic temporal trends in the visible and near-infrared (500 m) bands of the Collection 5 (C5) MODIS Terra and, to lesser extent, in MODIS Aqua geophysical data sets. Sensor degradation is largest in the blue band (B3) of the MODIS sensor on Terra and decreases with wavelength. Calibration degradation causes negative global trends in multiple MODIS C5 products including the dark target algorithm's aerosol optical depth over land and Ångström exponent over the ocean, global liquid water and ice cloud optical thickness, as well as surface reflectance and vegetation indices, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). As the C5 production will be maintained for another year in parallel with C6, one objective of this paper is to raise awareness of the calibration-related trends for the broad MODIS user community. The new C6 calibration approach removes major calibrations trends in the Level 1B (L1B) data. This paper also introduces an enhanced C6+ calibration of the MODIS data set which includes an additional polarization correction (PC) to compensate for the increased polarization sensitivity of MODIS Terra since about 2007, as well as detrending and Terra–Aqua cross-calibration over quasi-stable desert calibration sites. The PC algorithm, developed by the MODIS ocean biology processing group (OBPG), removes residual scan angle, mirror side and seasonal biases from aerosol and surface reflectance (SR) records along with spectral distortions of SR. Using the multiangle implementation of atmospheric correction (MAIAC) algorithm over deserts, we have also developed a detrending and cross-calibration method which removes residual decadal trends on the order of several tenths of 1% of the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in the visible and near-infrared MODIS bands B1–B4, and provides a good consistency between the two MODIS sensors. MAIAC analysis over the southern USA shows that the C6+ approach removed an additional negative decadal trend of Terra ΔNDVI ~ 0.01 as compared to Aqua data. This change is particularly important for analysis of vegetation dynamics and trends in the tropics, e.g., Amazon rainforest, where the morning orbit of Terra provides considerably more cloud-free observations compared to the afternoon Aqua measurements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuehong Chen ◽  
Zhengfei Guo ◽  
Jin Chen ◽  
Wei Yang ◽  
Yanming Yao ◽  
...  

Most vegetation indices (VIs) of remote sensing were designed based on the concept of soil-line, which represents a linear correlation between bare soil reflectance at the red and near-infrared (NIR) bands. Unfortunately, the soil-line can only suppress brightness variation, not color differences of bare soil. Consequently, soil variation has a considerable impact on vegetation indices, although significant efforts have been devoted to this issue. In this study, a new soil-line is established in a new feature space of the NIR band and a virtual band that combines the red and shortwave-infrared (SWIR) bands (0.74ρred+0.26ρswir). Then, plus versions of vegetation indices (VI+), i.e., normalized difference vegetation index plus (NDVI+), enhanced vegetation index plus (EVI+), soil-adjusted vegetation index plus (SAVI+), and modified soil-adjusted vegetation index plus (MSAVI+), are proposed based on the new soil-line, which replaces the red band with the red-SWIR band in the vegetation indices. Soil spectral data from several spectral libraries confirm that bare soil has much less variation for VI+ than the original VI. Simulation experiments show that VI+ correlates better with fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) and leaf area index (LAI) than original VI. Ground measured LAI data collected from BigFoot, VALERI, and other previous references also confirm that VI+ derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data correlates better with ground measured LAI than original VI. These data analyses suggest that replacing the red band with the red-SWIR band can reduce the sensitivity of VIs to soil background. We recommend employing the proposed NDVI+, EVI+, SAVI+, and MSAVI+ in applications of large area, sparse vegetation, or when soil color variation cannot be neglected, although sensitivity to soil moisture and clay content might cause slight side effects for the proposed VI+s.


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