HR: 0800h
AN: B41A-0096    [Abstracts]
TI: Vegetation Phenology and MODIS Leaf Area Index in the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin, North Carolina and Virginia, U.S.A.
AU: * Pilant, A N
EM: pilant.drew@epa.gov
AF: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, MD E243-05 109 TW Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27711
AU: Iiames, J S
EM: iiames.john@epa.gov
AF: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, MD E243-05 109 TW Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27711
AU: Murphy, M S
EM: murphy.marks@epa.gov
AF: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, MD E243-05 109 TW Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27711
AU: Ediriwickrema, J
EM: ediriwickrema.jayantha@epa.gov
AF: Computer Science Corporation, Suite 220, 2803 Slater Rd, Morrisvilee, NC 27560
AU: Lewis, T E
EM: lewis.timothy@epa.gov
AF: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Assessment, 109 TW Alexander Drive, RTP, NC 27711
AB: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on Terra and Aqua satellite platforms offer unprecedented opportunities for daily to monthly monitoring of terrestrial vegetation dynamics. MODIS product MOD15A2 Leaf Area Index (LAI) maps the projected leaf surface area every 8 days at a pixel resolution of 1 km. LAI is an input to biogenic emission models that estimate volatile organic compounds emitted by vegetation. LAI is also used in modeling the leaf surface area available for deposition of atmospheric particles and gases. As an integrator of vegetation phenology and landscape characteristics, LAI has utility in land cover classification and ecoregion delineation. This report summarizes aspects of validation efforts comparing field LAI measurements with MODIS LAI image time series. Eight forested piedmont and coastal plain field sites in the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin were visited intermittently in the 2001-2004 growing seasons. In addition to baseline forest biometric characterization at each site, field measurements of LAI were made using two optical methods: hemispherical photography and TRAC (Tracing Radiation and Architecture of Canopies) sunfleck profiling. LAI surface maps were created from regression of field LAI measurements with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps derived from precision registered Landsat ETM+ imagery. The LAI surface maps (30 m pixels) were then coarsened to the 1 km scale for comparison with the MODIS LAI product to characterize the uncertainty in LAI estimation.
DE: 9350 North America
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting