Satellite passive microwave detection of North America start of season

Matthew O. Jones; John S. Kimball; Lucas A. Jones; Kyle C. McDonald

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025

Satellite passive microwave detection of North America start of season

Matthew O. Jones, John S. Kimball, Lucas A. Jones, Kyle C. McDonald

Numeric Terradynamic Simulation Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

The start of season (SOS) phenological metric indicates the seasonal onset of vegetation activity, including canopy growth, photosynthesis and associated increases in land-atmosphere water, energy and carbon (CO ₂) exchanges influencing weather and climate variability. Satellite optical-infrared (IR) remote sensing is responsive to vegetation greenness and SOS, but measurement accuracy and global monitoring are constrained by atmosphere cloud/aerosol contamination and seasonal decreases in solar illumination for many areas. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter from satellite passive microwave remote sensing provides an alternative means for global phenology monitoring that is sensitive to vegetation canopy biomass and water content, and insensitive to atmosphere and solar illumination constraints. A global VOD record from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) was used to estimate North America SOS patterns and annual variability at the ecoregion scale. The SOS metrics were derived for a four year (2004-2007) record using TIMESAT and AMSR-E 10.7GHz frequency VOD retrievals composited to 4-day median time series. The VOD SOS corresponded favorably with MODIS-for-NACP NDVI (0.73<R<0.81; p<0.01) and LAI (0.66<R<0.89; p<0.01) greenup dates, and stand level SOS estimates derived from flux tower gross primary production (r ²=0.61, p<0.01) and ecosystem respiration (r ²=0.44, p<0.01) estimates. The VOD SOS was temporally offset from MODIS greenup and tower SOS metrics by up to 4-7weeks (RMSE) and the offset patterns coincided with the primary climate constraints (temperature and water) to vegetation growth. The VOD SOS generally preceded greenup in cold temperature constrained ecoregions and followed greenup in warmer, water limited ecoregions, with delays increasing for areas with greater woody vegetation cover. The AMSR-E VOD record captures canopy biomass changes independent of NDVI greenness or LAI measures, providing new and complementary phenological information for regional carbon, water and energy cycle studies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	324-333
Number of pages	10
Journal	Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume	123
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025
State	Published - Aug 2012

Funding

This study was carried out with funding from the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program. The authors thank the AmeriFlux Network and Fluxnet-Canada for making the data freely available as well as the flux tower principal investigators including Allen Goldstein, Andy Black, Bill Munger, Dennis Baldocchi, Hank Margolis, Larry Flanagan, Margaret Torn, Marc Fischer, Paul Bolstad, Peter Lafleur, Russell Scott, Tilden Meyers and Walt Oechel. The authors also thank Rama Nemani for providing the climate constraint map. The AMSR-E global VOD database and associated biophysical retrievals from this study are available through the UMT online data archives ( ftp://ftp.ntsg.umt.edu/pub/data ) and the NASA NSIDC DAAC ( http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0451.html ). This work was performed at the University of Montana (UMT) and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Funders	Funder number
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Keywords

AMSR-E
LAI
MODIS
NACP
NDVI
Phenology
Start of season
TIMESAT
VOD

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025

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title = "Satellite passive microwave detection of North America start of season",

abstract = "The start of season (SOS) phenological metric indicates the seasonal onset of vegetation activity, including canopy growth, photosynthesis and associated increases in land-atmosphere water, energy and carbon (CO 2) exchanges influencing weather and climate variability. Satellite optical-infrared (IR) remote sensing is responsive to vegetation greenness and SOS, but measurement accuracy and global monitoring are constrained by atmosphere cloud/aerosol contamination and seasonal decreases in solar illumination for many areas. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter from satellite passive microwave remote sensing provides an alternative means for global phenology monitoring that is sensitive to vegetation canopy biomass and water content, and insensitive to atmosphere and solar illumination constraints. A global VOD record from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) was used to estimate North America SOS patterns and annual variability at the ecoregion scale. The SOS metrics were derived for a four year (2004-2007) record using TIMESAT and AMSR-E 10.7GHz frequency VOD retrievals composited to 4-day median time series. The VOD SOS corresponded favorably with MODIS-for-NACP NDVI (0.73<R<0.81; p<0.01) and LAI (0.66<R<0.89; p<0.01) greenup dates, and stand level SOS estimates derived from flux tower gross primary production (r 2=0.61, p<0.01) and ecosystem respiration (r 2=0.44, p<0.01) estimates. The VOD SOS was temporally offset from MODIS greenup and tower SOS metrics by up to 4-7weeks (RMSE) and the offset patterns coincided with the primary climate constraints (temperature and water) to vegetation growth. The VOD SOS generally preceded greenup in cold temperature constrained ecoregions and followed greenup in warmer, water limited ecoregions, with delays increasing for areas with greater woody vegetation cover. The AMSR-E VOD record captures canopy biomass changes independent of NDVI greenness or LAI measures, providing new and complementary phenological information for regional carbon, water and energy cycle studies.",

keywords = "AMSR-E, LAI, MODIS, NACP, NDVI, Phenology, Start of season, TIMESAT, VOD",

author = "Jones, {Matthew O.} and Kimball, {John S.} and Jones, {Lucas A.} and McDonald, {Kyle C.}",

note = "Funding Information: This study was carried out with funding from the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program. The authors thank the AmeriFlux Network and Fluxnet-Canada for making the data freely available as well as the flux tower principal investigators including Allen Goldstein, Andy Black, Bill Munger, Dennis Baldocchi, Hank Margolis, Larry Flanagan, Margaret Torn, Marc Fischer, Paul Bolstad, Peter Lafleur, Russell Scott, Tilden Meyers and Walt Oechel. The authors also thank Rama Nemani for providing the climate constraint map. The AMSR-E global VOD database and associated biophysical retrievals from this study are available through the UMT online data archives ( ftp://ftp.ntsg.umt.edu/pub/data ) and the NASA NSIDC DAAC ( http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0451.html ). This work was performed at the University of Montana (UMT) and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ",

year = "2012",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025",

language = "English",

volume = "123",

pages = "324--333",

journal = "Remote Sensing of Environment",

issn = "0034-4257",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Satellite passive microwave detection of North America start of season

AU - Jones, Matthew O.

AU - Kimball, John S.

AU - Jones, Lucas A.

AU - McDonald, Kyle C.

N1 - Funding Information: This study was carried out with funding from the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program. The authors thank the AmeriFlux Network and Fluxnet-Canada for making the data freely available as well as the flux tower principal investigators including Allen Goldstein, Andy Black, Bill Munger, Dennis Baldocchi, Hank Margolis, Larry Flanagan, Margaret Torn, Marc Fischer, Paul Bolstad, Peter Lafleur, Russell Scott, Tilden Meyers and Walt Oechel. The authors also thank Rama Nemani for providing the climate constraint map. The AMSR-E global VOD database and associated biophysical retrievals from this study are available through the UMT online data archives ( ftp://ftp.ntsg.umt.edu/pub/data ) and the NASA NSIDC DAAC ( http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0451.html ). This work was performed at the University of Montana (UMT) and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

PY - 2012/8

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N2 - The start of season (SOS) phenological metric indicates the seasonal onset of vegetation activity, including canopy growth, photosynthesis and associated increases in land-atmosphere water, energy and carbon (CO 2) exchanges influencing weather and climate variability. Satellite optical-infrared (IR) remote sensing is responsive to vegetation greenness and SOS, but measurement accuracy and global monitoring are constrained by atmosphere cloud/aerosol contamination and seasonal decreases in solar illumination for many areas. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter from satellite passive microwave remote sensing provides an alternative means for global phenology monitoring that is sensitive to vegetation canopy biomass and water content, and insensitive to atmosphere and solar illumination constraints. A global VOD record from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) was used to estimate North America SOS patterns and annual variability at the ecoregion scale. The SOS metrics were derived for a four year (2004-2007) record using TIMESAT and AMSR-E 10.7GHz frequency VOD retrievals composited to 4-day median time series. The VOD SOS corresponded favorably with MODIS-for-NACP NDVI (0.73<R<0.81; p<0.01) and LAI (0.66<R<0.89; p<0.01) greenup dates, and stand level SOS estimates derived from flux tower gross primary production (r 2=0.61, p<0.01) and ecosystem respiration (r 2=0.44, p<0.01) estimates. The VOD SOS was temporally offset from MODIS greenup and tower SOS metrics by up to 4-7weeks (RMSE) and the offset patterns coincided with the primary climate constraints (temperature and water) to vegetation growth. The VOD SOS generally preceded greenup in cold temperature constrained ecoregions and followed greenup in warmer, water limited ecoregions, with delays increasing for areas with greater woody vegetation cover. The AMSR-E VOD record captures canopy biomass changes independent of NDVI greenness or LAI measures, providing new and complementary phenological information for regional carbon, water and energy cycle studies.

AB - The start of season (SOS) phenological metric indicates the seasonal onset of vegetation activity, including canopy growth, photosynthesis and associated increases in land-atmosphere water, energy and carbon (CO 2) exchanges influencing weather and climate variability. Satellite optical-infrared (IR) remote sensing is responsive to vegetation greenness and SOS, but measurement accuracy and global monitoring are constrained by atmosphere cloud/aerosol contamination and seasonal decreases in solar illumination for many areas. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameter from satellite passive microwave remote sensing provides an alternative means for global phenology monitoring that is sensitive to vegetation canopy biomass and water content, and insensitive to atmosphere and solar illumination constraints. A global VOD record from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) was used to estimate North America SOS patterns and annual variability at the ecoregion scale. The SOS metrics were derived for a four year (2004-2007) record using TIMESAT and AMSR-E 10.7GHz frequency VOD retrievals composited to 4-day median time series. The VOD SOS corresponded favorably with MODIS-for-NACP NDVI (0.73<R<0.81; p<0.01) and LAI (0.66<R<0.89; p<0.01) greenup dates, and stand level SOS estimates derived from flux tower gross primary production (r 2=0.61, p<0.01) and ecosystem respiration (r 2=0.44, p<0.01) estimates. The VOD SOS was temporally offset from MODIS greenup and tower SOS metrics by up to 4-7weeks (RMSE) and the offset patterns coincided with the primary climate constraints (temperature and water) to vegetation growth. The VOD SOS generally preceded greenup in cold temperature constrained ecoregions and followed greenup in warmer, water limited ecoregions, with delays increasing for areas with greater woody vegetation cover. The AMSR-E VOD record captures canopy biomass changes independent of NDVI greenness or LAI measures, providing new and complementary phenological information for regional carbon, water and energy cycle studies.

KW - AMSR-E

KW - LAI

KW - MODIS

KW - NACP

KW - NDVI

KW - Phenology

KW - Start of season

KW - TIMESAT

KW - VOD

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U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025

DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.025

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84860312600

SN - 0034-4257

VL - 123

SP - 324

EP - 333

JO - Remote Sensing of Environment

JF - Remote Sensing of Environment

ER -

Satellite passive microwave detection of North America start of season

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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