Measurement type |
Spatial scale |
Temporal Scale |
Purpose |
Methods |
Example Citations |
Laboratory or leaf-level |
<< 1 m |
Snapshot |
Variation in leaf-level optical properties; spectral response to stress
(e.g., drydown); development of leaf-scale functional trait models |
Collection of leaf and canopy spectra in controlled, manipulation
environments and in situ; leaf spectroscopy; collection of leaf
endmember spectra |
(Hunt & Rock, 1989; Serbin et al., 2019; Stasinski
et al., 2021) |
Field spectroscopy
|
<1 m - 10 m
Canopy
|
Snapshot
|
Variation in spectral profiles by species at different scales;
developing scaling approaches
|
Near-surface, non-contact measurement of plant canopy reflectance
|
(Davidson et al., 2016; Karl Fred Huemmrich et al., 2013)
|
Tower or automated tram
|
100s of m
Canopy - Landscape
|
Continuous (hourly) over seasons
|
Diurnal and seasonal variation; variation between species; developing
scaling approaches
|
Repeated manual or automated measurement of plant canopy
reflectance
|
(Hilker et al., 2011; Pierrat et al., 2021)
|
UAS
|
0.2 - 1 m
Landscape
|
Snapshots
|
Fine-scale spatial information at landscape to watershed scales;
scaling; seasonal variation
|
Collection of surface reflectance and other composition and structural
information from unoccupied platforms
|
(Thomson et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2021)
|
Piloted aircraft
|
0.5 - 5 m
Landscape - regional
|
Snapshots every few years
|
Regional mapping and intermediate scale of observation
|
Imaging spectroscopy
|
(Maguire et al., 2021; Singh et al., 2015)
|
Spacecraft
|
10m - 8 km
Regional - continental
|
Repeating daily - weekly
|
Regional to continental-scale mapping, monitoring of coarse spatial
resolution phenological change
|
Imaging spectroscopy, change detection and time series analysis
|
(Puletti et al., 2016; J. A. Wang et al., 2020)
|