New Vegetation Index

LAI is a crucial parameter and a basic quantity indicating crop growth situation. Empirical models comprising spectral indices (SIs) and LAI have widely been applied to the retrieval of LAI. SI method already has exhibited feasibility in the estimation of vegetation LAI. However, it is largely subject to the inconsistency from different remote sensors which have varied specifications, such as spectral response features and central wavelength. To address this issue, a new vegetation index (VIUPD) based on the universal pattern decomposition method was proposed. It is expressed as a linear sum of the pattern decomposition coefficients and features in sensor-independency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prediction accuracy and stability of VIUPD for estimating LAI, compared with three other common-used SIs. In this study, the measured spectra were resampled to simulated TM multispectral data and Hyperion hyperspectral data respectively, using the Gaussian spectral response function. The three typical SIs chosen were including NDVI, TVI and MCARI, which were constructed with the sensitive bands to the LAI. Finally, the regression equations between four selected SIs and LAI were established. The best index evaluated using the simulated TM data was VIUPD which exhibits the best correlation with LAI (R2=0.92) followed by NDVI (R2=0.80). For the simulated Hyperion data, VIUPD again ranks first with R2=0.89, followed by TVI (R2=0.63). Meanwhile, the consistence of VIUPD also was studied based on simulated TM and Hyperion sensor data and the R2 reached to 0.95. It is demonstrated that VIUPD has the best accuracy and stability to estimate LAI of winter wheat whether using simulated TM data or Hyperion data, which reaffirms that VIUPD is comparatively sensor independent.

Authors: Hailing Jiang, Lifu Zhang, Hang Yang, Xiaoping Chen, Shudong Wang, Xueke Li, Kai Liu

Keywords: retrieval of leaf area index, spectral index, VIUPD, data resampling, regression analysis, prediction accuracy, and stability

Spectral Evolution is a leading manufacturer of field-portable UV-Vis-NIR remote sensing spectroradiometers and spectrometers for applications including geological remote sensing, ground-truthing, spectral remote sensing, environmental and climate research, crop and soil research, vegetative studies, forestry and canopy studies, radiometric calibration transfer, upwelling and downwelling measurement and more. Our UV-Vis-NIR spectrometers and spectroradiometers provide the best combination of high resolution and high sensitivity resulting in the most precise field portable instruments available on the market.

NaturaSpec UltraSpectral Evolution UV-Vis-NIR spectroradiometers provide:

  • Fast, full-spectrum UV-Vis-NIR measurements – 350-2500 nm with just one scan
  • Superior reliability in the field with 100% diode array optics with no moving parts
  • Wireless Bluetooth® Connection
  • Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries for field use
  • Lightweight and rugged
  • Rugged handheld tablet for field use running DARWin™ LT on Windows 10 with digital camera, and GPS
  • Field switchable optics for varying target sizes and measurement modes

All Spectral Evolution UV-Vis-NIR spectroradiometers include our exclusive DARWin™ SP Data Acquisition and Analysis software for one-touch, full range spectroscopic analysis of samples. DARWin™ SP automatically saves data as ASCII files for use with 3rd party software without post-processing.