Remote sensing of chlorophyll fluorescence for estimation of stress in vegetation. recommendations for future missions

Abstract

Vegetation monitoring is a key issue in Earth Observation due to its relation with the global CO2 cycle. Chlorophyll fluorescence (ChF) emitted by the vegetation is an accurate indicator of the plant status and their photosynthetic activity. This work analyses the diurnal evolution of the ChF emission spectrum and the fluorescence yield in order to determine the best conditions for remote sensing of ChF from a satellite platform. The ChF evolution is studied at leaf level during several diurnal cycles, in simulated conditions, for two species under different stress conditions. The analysis of the signal levels gives an estimation of the values of ChF emission which could be observed from a remote sensing platform, and determines the best overpass time for this observation.