US-Australia Cooperative Research: Theory and Application of a Discrete Object Approach to Scattering of Light by Vegetation Canopies

0218164 Strahler该奖项支持波士顿大学研究生Alan Strahler教授和同事与澳大利亚堪培拉CSIRO地球观测中心的David Lupp博士和其他人以及中国科学院遥感应用研究所的李晓万教授和同事在遥感研究方面进行合作。美国国家科学基金会的支持将使美国团队能够参与澳大利亚和中国正在进行的实地测量，并与他们的合作者合作改进他们的理论。他们的工作重点是使用辐射测量仪器从飞机或卫星上对植被树冠进行成像。他们正在开发一种替代辐射传输理论的方法，即光是如何通过植被树冠散射的。他们的方法将树冠描述为离散的三维对象的集合，这导致了许多实际应用。它们的基本目标是从植被覆盖中检索细节，如树叶和植物的大小、形状和间距。这些信息将直接应用于在景观尺度上研究植被生态系统的碳平衡和动态。

0218164StrahlerThis award supports Professor Alan Strahler, a graduate student, and colleagues from Boston University for travel to collaborate in remote sensing research with Dr. David Lupp and others of the CSIRO Earth Observation Center in Canberra, Australia and with Professor Ziaowan Li and colleagues of the Institute of Remote Sensing Application of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. NSF support will enable the US group to participate in ongoing field measurements in Australia and China and to work with their collaborators to improve their theory.Their work focuses on the imaging of vegetation canopies from aircraft or satellites using radiometric instruments. They are developing an alternative to the radiative transfer theory of how light is scattered by vegetation canopies. Their approach describes the canopy as a collection of discrete three-dimensional objects, which leads to many practical applications. Their fundamental objective is to retrieve details from the vegetation cover such as the size, shape and spacing of the leaves and plants. This information will have direct application to studying the carbon balance and dynamics of vegetated ecosystems at landscape scales.