Goniometer in the air: Enabling BRDF measurement of crop canopies using a cable-suspended plant phenotyping platform

Authors

Geng Bai, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Yufeng Ge, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Bryan Leavitt, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
John Gamon, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David Scoby, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2023

Citation

Biosystems Engineering 230 (2023), 344-360

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2023.04.017

Comments

This is an open access article under the CC BY license

Abstract

The Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) quantifies the distribution of the spectral reflectance of a target surface at various viewing and illumination angles. In-field measurement of the BRDF of vegetation canopies improves the characterization of offnadir measurements and informs radiative transfer models of canopy reflectance, where the Lambertian assumption does not hold. However, current field goniometers are unable to measure BRDF efficiently, especially for tall vegetation across the growing season because of the limitations of clearance, field accessibility, and flexibility of the sensor field of view. In this study, we explored the potential of using a large-scale cable-suspended field phenotyping system to quantify BRDF of the canopy reflectance at selected bands and Vegetation Indices (VIs) of maize and soybean canopies. The system performance benefited from the following conditions: no crop damage, full-season field accessibility of tall canopies, automatic measurement, and accurate positioning. Correlation analysis shows that a strong correlation exists among the reflectance, VIs, and the Green Pixel Fraction. The hemispheric distributions of the spectral reflectance at selected bands and VIs were quantified at multiple dates. Hot spots were observed in the backscatter direction at visible and near-infrared (NIR) bands at the largest sensor zenith angle around the Solar Principal Plane (SPP). In contrast, cold spots of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and its related VIs were observed in the backscatter direction around solar zenith angles. The row effect was found for the maize canopy at the NIR band and the Near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv). NDVI had the lowest anisotropy index values among investigated bands and VIs. This system could be further leveraged to generate rapid and detailed BRDF data at a high spatiotemporal resolution using multiple sensors.