MISR abstract

Nolin, A.W., (2003). Parameterization of Forest Canopy Properties over Snow using MISR. Eos Trans. AGU, 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl. 2003, Abstract # C42C-08

The presence of a forest canopy complicates our understanding of the processes of snow accumulation and ablation. Quantifying snow interception by forest canopies requires estimates of canopy density and geometry. Remote sensing data from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) have been used to characterize surface structure through a parametric approach. The RPV parametric model relates the anisotropic surface reflectance to vegetation stand density and the degree of sub-pixel heterogeneity. Here, we show preliminary results using MISR 275m data acquired over snow-covered landscapes in Saskatchewan and Colorado. The shape of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function over varying vegetation of coverage amounts and geometries changes from bowl-shaped to bell-shaped, indicating strong potential for the use of multi-angle data in characterizing vegetation in conjunction with snow cover mapping.

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