2020/11/16

Remote Sensing On Vegetation

副研究員
張立雨

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 1

Remote Sensing on Vegetation

Water
absorption
bands:
0.97 m
1.19 m
1.45 m
1.94 m
2.70 m

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 2

1
 2020/11/16

Spectral Characteristics of
Vegetation
 For healthy green leaf
– Absorbs radiant energy very efficiently in blue and red portions of
spectrum for “photosynthesis process”
– Reflects about 76% of incident energy near infrared band at 900nm
– If plants absorbed near infrared energy in the same efficiency as they
do in visible band, they would become much too warm and the
proteins would be irreversibly denatured

Absorption Spectra of Chlorophyll a and b

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 3

Natural Color and NIR Images

Natural Color (blue, green, and red) Black and white near-infrared

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 4

2
 2020/11/16

Natural Color and NIR Images

R, G, B
Natural Color
Image

IR, R, G
False Color
Image

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 5

Hypothetical Leaf Cross-section

NIR Radiance

上葉表皮 柵狀 韌皮部 木質部

外皮膜 薄壁組織細胞 組織 組織

葉綠體

partial transmitting
and
partial reflecting
media

氣孔 葉脈
下葉表皮 海綿薄壁組織
葉肉細胞
This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 6

3
 2020/11/16

Real Leaf Cross-section

NIR Radiance

柵狀
薄壁組織細胞 上葉表皮

partial transmitting
and
partial reflecting
media

下葉表皮

細胞間 海綿薄壁組織
空氣間隙 葉肉細胞

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 7

NIR Interaction within the Leaf

 High reflectance of NIR (0.7~1.2μm) from plant leaves is due to the

internal scattering at cell wall-air interfaces within the leaf

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 8

4
 2020/11/16

Optimal Spectral Range for Sensing NIR

Information

 Due to the water vapor absorption

at 0.92~0.98 μm, the optimal

spectral range for sensing NIR
information is around 0.74~0.90 μm
 Spectral range of NIR band for

FORMOSAT-2 and Landsat series

sensors: 0.76~0.90 μm

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 9

NIR Reflection of Healthy Plant

 The leaf already reflects 40%~60% of incident

NIR energy from spongy mesophyll

 The remainling 45%~50% of energy penetrates

(ie. is transmitted) through the leaf and can be

reflected once again by leaves below

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 10

5
 2020/11/16

Additive Reflectance of Leaves

Hypothetical Example of
Additive Reflectance
from A Canopy with Two
Leaf Layers
(3.125%)

The denser the vegetation, the

higher the reflectance of NIR

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 11

Spectral Response and Vegetation

Biomass

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 12

6
 2020/11/16

Vegetation Index

 Vegetation index is designed to capture biophysical

characteristics (i.e. leaf area index, biomass, chlorophyll

content), differences in index values may capture
vegetation changes over time.
 Vegetation mapping using spectral reflectance
– Vegetation has high specific reflectance characteristic in near-
infrared part
– Visible light is mostly absorbed by vegetation
– Near-infrared reflection of vegetation is much higher than most
other land cover
This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 13

Vegetation Index

 Reflectance of vegetation:
– steep ascent between visible red
and near-infrared
– this differentiates vegetation
from other land surfaces

 Vegetation index:
– indication of presence of
vegetation by comparing
reflection values in red and Vegetation Reflectance Curve
near-infrared bands

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 14

7
 2020/11/16

NDVI

Normalized Difference Vegetation

Index (NDVI)
NIR  R
NDVI 
NIR  R
-1 ≤ NDVI ≤ + 1

Studies have shown a

good correlation
between the NDVI and
the amount of vegetation

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 15

Characteristics of NDVI

 NDVI is a more stable parameter for observing

vegetation
– The effect of atmosphere can be rejected
– The bi-directional effect of ground object can be
suppressed

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 16

8
 2020/11/16

Process of Remote Sensing (ideal

case)

Energy Source

Scattered Energy

Earth surface

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 17

Process of Remote Sensing (real

case)

Path
Radiance

Atmosphere

Earth surface

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 18

9
 2020/11/16

NDVI Rejects Path Radiance

NIR  R
NDVI 
NIR  R
Red Red

IR IR

Chlorophyll

Earth surface

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 19

Bi-Directional Effect

 The incident angle (σ) and view angle (θ) can

dramamatically change the radiance received

by sensor

Sun Sensor

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 20

10
 2020/11/16

Surface Reflectance Model

 The property of objects can affect reflected

radiance as well
– Lambertian Model
– Non-Lambertian Model

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 21

Lambertian Reflectance Model

(Cosine Correction)
 BVnormal = BVobserved / cos i
– cos i = cos (90 - qs) cos (qn) + sin (90 - qs) sin (qn) cos (fs - fn)
– BVnormal : Normalized Brightness Values
• Image brightness value observed when incidence angle is in normal
direction (incidence angle is zero)
– BVobserved : Observed Brightness Values
– i: The angle between the solar rays and the normal to the surface
– qs : Elevation of the Sun
– fs: Azimuth of the Sun
– qn : Slope of each surface element
– fn : Aspect of each surface element

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 22

11
 2020/11/16

Non-Lambertian Reflectance

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 23

Non-Lambertian Reflectance Model

(Minnaert Correction)

 BVnormal= (BVobserved cos e)/(cosk i cosk e)

– BVnormal : normalized brightness values
– BVobserved :observed brightness values
– cos i : cosine of the incidence angle
– cos e : cosine of the exitance angle
– k : empirically derived Minnaert constant

 Minnaert constant k (0<k<1)

– log (BVobserved cos e) = log BVnormal - k log (cos i cos e)
– k : acquired from regression analysis of above equation
– The smoother surface, the smaller k

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 24

12
 2020/11/16

NDVI and Bi-Directional Effect

 According to above 2 model for Bi-Directional

Effect, The normalization process of NDVI

suppresses the bi-directional effect

IR  R
NDVI 
IR  R

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 25

Characteristics of NDVI

 The subtraction of NIR and Red bands in NDVI

rejects the atmospheric variation

 The normalization process of NDVI can
suppress the bi-directional effect of ground
object
 Therefore, it is suitable to be used in change

detection with multitemporal images

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 26

13
 2020/11/16

NDVI of Different Objects

Vegetation in Vegetation in
summer or winter or unhealthy
healthy condition condition

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/MeasuringVegetation/measuring_vegetation_2.php

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 27

Difference of NDVI

 Difference of NDVI is created by subtracting the value of NDVI in

two NDVI images.

– Difference of NDVI = NDVI later – NDVI earlier
 Results in either a positive (+2) or negative value (-2) where change

has occurred.
– Zero value indicates pixels are no changed, otherwise are changed
– Must consider threshold boundaries between change and no-change.

Distribution of NDVI difference

-2 0 +2
vegetation  non-vegetation non-vegetation  vegetation
This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 28

14
 2020/11/16

Thresholding

 Still need to determine the threshold for detection

– Multiple of standard deviation of DN difference.
• Nelson (1983): k = 0.5~1
• Ridd and Liu (1998): k = 0.9~1.4
• Sohl (1999): k = 2

ΔNDVI = NDVI later – NDVI earlier

Deforestation Forest Restoration

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 29

Practice
Forest Disease Monitoring Using
NDVI Differencing

1. Obtain NDVIDay2 and NDVIDay1

2. NDVI Difference = NDVIDay2 – NDVIDay1

3. Deforestation: NDVI Difference < Threshold

4. Restoration: NDVI Difference > Threshold

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 30

15
 2020/11/16

Test Data
Mountain Pine Ridge, Belize
Landsat-5 2000/03/28

Landsat-7 2003/03/13

FORMOSAT-2
2004/11/28

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 31

NDVI Calculation

Using ERDAS Imagine

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 32

16
 2020/11/16

NDVI Calculation

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 33

NDVI Images

NDVI of Landsat-5 NDVI of Landsat-7

03/28/2000 2003/03/13

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 34

17
 2020/11/16

Subtraction and Thresholding by Imagine

Modeler
Step 1:
Click Execute
Model to Start

Step 2:
According to the prompted
message, specify your “NDVI
image of date 2”, “NDVI image
of date 1” and “output image”

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 35

Detected Deforestation Area

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 36

18
 2020/11/16

Forest Disease Monitoring and

Restoration

Landsat-7 2003/03/13 FORMOSAT-2 11/28/2004

Restored Forest Area

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 37

This document contains proprietary and controlled information of National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and shall not be duplicated in whole or in part for any purposes without permission from NSPO. 38

19