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Comparing land surface phenology derived from satellite and GPS network microwave remote sensing
Matthew O Jones1, John S Kimball, Eric E Small
1Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS), Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group (NTSG), University of Montana, Davidson Honors College Room 021, NTSG Annex, 32 Campus Dr., Missoula, MT, 59812, USA, matt.jones@ntsg.umt.edu.
International Journal of Biometeorology
|September 6, 2013
Summary
Satellite microwave vegetation optical depth (VOD) shows strong correlation with ground-based normalized microwave reflectance index (NMRI) for monitoring land surface phenology start of season (SOS). This validates NMRI as a tool for land surface phenology validation.
Area of Science:
- Earth Science
- Remote Sensing
- Ecology
Background:
- Land surface phenology (LSP) start of season (SOS) indicates vegetation activity and influences climate.
- Satellite vegetation optical depth (VOD) monitors LSP globally, unaffected by atmospheric conditions.
- Direct field validation of VOD is costly and data is scarce.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the correspondence between satellite VOD and ground-based NMRI for LSP monitoring.
- To assess the utility of NMRI for validating satellite-derived LSP metrics.
- To compare VOD and NMRI-derived SOS metrics.
Main Methods:
- Compared multiyear (2007-2011) satellite VOD and GPS-derived NMRI records at over 300 North American sites.
- Analyzed SOS metrics derived from both VOD and NMRI at 24 homogenous land cover sites.
- Utilized statistical correlation analysis to assess data correspondence.
Main Results:
- Found significant correlations (90.5%) between VOD and NMRI across North American GPS sites.
- Demonstrated favorable correspondence in derived SOS metrics (r²=0.73, RMSE=36.8 days).
- Highlighted spatial scale discrepancies between local NMRI and coarse VOD retrievals.
Conclusions:
- NMRI shows significant potential for validating satellite-derived land surface phenology metrics.
- This study is the first to compare satellite microwave LSP metrics with a GPS network-derived index.
- Acknowledged limitations of NMRI for LSP validation, including scale mismatches.
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