MISR abstract
Jean-Luc Widlowski, Bernard Pinty, Nadine Gobron, and Michel M. Verstraete (2004). Characterization of land surface structure using multidirectional MISR/Terra observations. Proceedings of the SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. 5232, 11-19.
The availability of quasi-simultaneous multi-directional measurements from space, as provided by the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on board the Terra platform, offers new and unique opportunities to document the anisotropy of terrestrial surfaces at key solar wavelengths. This contribution outlines the physical reasoning underpinning a new quantitative interpretation of multi-angular reflectance measurements over terrestrial surfaces. The most innovative aspect of this approach concerns the characterization of the heterogeneity of these surfaces. Indeed, when appropriately parameterized, the shape of the reflectance anisotropy at specific optical wavelengths can be related to the structural characteristics of the observed target. This allows the detection of geophysical conditions for which surface heterogeneity is an essential ingredient to describe the measured reflectance pattern. This finding paves the way for the quantitative characterization of plant canopy structure on the basis of multi-angular data.