Space-Borne Sun-Induced Fluorescence:An Advanced Probe to Monitor Seasonality of Dry and Moist Tropical Forest Sites

What is it about?

Space-borne Sun-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) is the latest breakthrough in remote sensing of physiological response of plants. We studied seasonality of Sal (Shorea robusta) forest canopies analysing space-borne SIF and reflectance data collected over moist and dry sites in central India. Results indicate that the monthly response of OCO-2 SIF, MODIS NDVI and GPP differ significantly across the wet and dry forest sites. SIF explained higher seasonal variations across sites compared to NDVI and was also better correlated to rainfall across sites than NDVI.

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Why is it important?

Generally, reflectance based Remote sensing is used for studying forest seasonality at local as well as scale. In the present research, highlighted the potential of emission based remotely sensed SIF in capturing the seasonal variability. We investigate the statistical relationship of intra-annual differences in satellite-derived SIF signal vis-a-vis NDVI/GPP at a finer scale. SIF gives better statistical relationship with rainfall and GPP than NDVI across different moisture regime. So, on the basis of our finding we suggested that use of SIF information may give more robust and precise estimation of forest seasonal variability

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