Research

NWO EcoRTM

Global change projections on decadal and century time scales are built on foundations of conceptual understanding for homogeneous areas and therefore have significant uncertainty associated with the difficulty in the representation of land-surface processes over real heterogeneous land surfaces. With the advent of a new generation of global imaging spectroradiometers capable of acquiring near simultaneous multi-angular observations, both qualitatively new approaches and quantitative improvements in accuracy are achievable by exploiting the multi-angle signals. However, a consistent modelling of the complete spectra from 0.3 to 14 µm and its coupling with detailed processes of turbulent heat, water vapour and carbon exchanges in understanding the 3D nature of these processes remains a major challenge.

This project builds upon existing concepts such as the theory underlying the model families SAIL and CUPID, but extending both theory and modelling approach to deal with truly 3D canopies and the related 3D nature of convective transfer of energy, heat and mass (water and carbon) in the canopy space. This will contribute significantly towards a better understanding of land – atmosphere exchange processes of radiation, heat and mass at heterogeneous land surfaces based on multi-angular synergistic optical and thermal measurements obtained with space- and airborne sensors. Data obtained with existing multi-angular observation systems will be used to assess the added value of the multi-angular synergistic hyper spectral and thermal infrared capabilities of new satellite missions.