5 Factors Affecting reflectance (NIR)

. Vegetation reflectance
The vegetation reflectance is influenced by the reflectance characteristics of individual plant organs,
canopy organization, type and growth stage of plants and structure and texture of the canopies.

5.1 Nature of the plant

Numerous measurements have been performed to evaluate the spectral response of various categories
of plants with a spectrophotometer. The studies have led to the following general conclusions. For a
plant in its normal state, i.e. typical and healthy, the spectrat reflectance is specific of the group, the
species and even of the variety at a given stage in its phenological evolution.
The general aspects of spectral reflectance of a healthy plant in the range 400-2600 nm is shown in
figure below. The figure shows five striking features concerning the absorbance.
A) High in the ultraviolet and the blue.
B) Reduced in the green.
C) High in the red.
D) Very low in the near infrared (700< 2 nm < 1500) along with high reflectance and
transmittance. The very abrupt increase in refiectance near 700 nm and the fairly abrupt
decrease near 1500 nm are present for all mature healthy green leaves.
E) Very high further in the far infrared (2 > 3000 nm).
Thus the typical spectral curve of plant is divided into three prominent zones correlated with
morphological characteristics of the leaves.

Figure 1: Spectral response of typical vegetation.

5.2 Factors affecting spectral reflectance of vegetation

There are numerous factors, either internal or external (environmental), which have an influence on the
specific spectral reflectance. The above descriptions exposed so far are true only for a normal, mature
and healthy vegetation. The factors which affect the spectral reflectance of leaves are leaf structure,
maturity, pigmentation, sun exposition, phyllotaxis, pubescence, turgidity (water content), nutritional
status, disease, etc. Primarily most important factors are pigmentation, nutritional status, anatomy of
leaves and water content. While sun exposition and phyllotaxy affect the canopy reflectance,
phenological state and disease are linked to the primary factors affecting the spectral reflectance.

Figure 2: Spectral response of different pigments in leaf of Coleus (plant type)

5.2.1 Nutritional status

With increases in nitrogen deficiency reflectance increases from 0.5 to 0.7 and 0.7 to 1.3 µm but
decreases from 1.3 to 2.5 µm. The increase of reflectance from 0.5 to 0.7 µm is due to the fact that
absorption in this spectral region is greatly affected by pigment concentration, which in turn depends
on the nitrogen concentration. By lowering the nitrogen content, a decrease in the chlorophylls and
consequently a reduced absorption of radiation (hence an increase of reflectance) are expected.
5.2.2 Leaf anatomy
The influence of internal structure of leaf is very significant. Prominent anatomical features which
affect the spectral reflectance are cell walls, intercellular spaces, epidermis, palisade and mesophyll
cells.
When radiation falls on the leaf surface, a part of the energy is reflected back from the leaf surface; the
reflection depends on cuticle thickness. The rest of the energy passes through the leaf, interacting with
the internal cellular structures, and strikes the lower leaves. The internal structure transmits the energy
after cell wall and cell sap interaction. A similar phenomenon takes place in the lower leaves also.

5.2.3 Seasonal reflectance change

The changes that occur in the spectral properties of plant leaves during the growing season are
significant. The very young folded, compact and underdeveloped leaves exhibit lack of chlorophyll.
Absorption in the visible range is due to protochlorophyll and anthocyanin. Gradually the leaf becomes
more and more green, which decreases red reflectance. Finally, a fully open leaf shows the normal
spectral characteristics with the green reflectance strong and the red and blue spectral regions much
absorbed. The near-infrared reflectance decreases as the leaf opens. The striking decrease appears to be
caused by the unfolding and expansion of the leaf and resultant loss of a multitude of reflecting
surfaces which existed in the much-folded, very young leaf.
As the leaf matures the light green colour darkens and chlorophyll absorption becomes well-developed
in the red region. However, the near-infrared reflectance increases due to the development of air-spaces
in the mesophyll and the presence of many reflecting surfaces within a leaf. Gradually, no change in
visible part of the spectrum is noticed but the reflection in near infrared region increases. A stage
comes when the reflection characteristics become fairly stable throughout the visible and near-infrared
and variation from leaf to leaf is also reduced. After this stage green reflectance increases dramatically
as the blue and red absorption weakens. The characteristic progressively takes place and becomes more
and more prominent as chlorophyll disappears. This stage is called senescence in phenological staging.
With most of the pigmentation gone, the leaf dries out and has collapsed cells throughout most of its
structure. At this stage the leaf has a brown dead appearance. It is interesting to note that the near-
infrared reflectance over the range 700-900 nm diminishes strongly but the reflectance in the region
beyond 900 nm changes very little.
5.2.4 External factors affecting spectral reflectance:
The influence of the external factors on the spectral reflectance is due to the alteration they bring about
in water content and turgidity, mesophyll structure, evapotranspiration, pigmentation and metabolism.
The external factors are connected:
 at ground level
o to the water availability for the plant
o to trophic mineral ion availability with specific evidence for nitrogen, iron (chlorophyll),
potassium, phosphorus, calcium or magnesium
o to toxic mineral salts (effect of water salinity)
 from atmosphere
o climatic factors (wind, air moisture content, temperature, sunshine conditions) on which
depend the CO2 acceptance and evapotranspiration
o seasonal variations
o toxic pollutants (especially fluorine, sulphur dioxide)
o deposition of dust/particulate matter
 biological pathogenic agents
o parasites
o predators
 to irradiance incidence angle (sun elevation), which leads to a diurnal variation of the spectral
reflectance.

5.2.5 Presence of senescent vegetation

As vegetation senesces the near-infrared leaf reflectance does not significantly decrease. However, the
breakdown of plant pigments causes rise in red reflectance. Therefore, if the amount of senescent
vegetation in a canopy increases, the positive relationship between near-infrared and green LAI will
weaken and probably disappear. This is a problem in semi-natural vegetation, particularly grassland,
where there is some senescent vegetation in the canopy throughout the year.
5.3 Factors interfering with multispectral reflectance and vegetation amount
relationship
5.3.1 Soil background:
If the reflectance of the soil is similar to the reflectance of vegetation at a particular wavelength then
the relationship between reflectance and vegetation amount will be weak in that band. For light-colored
soil with strong infrared reflectance the relationship between infrared reflectance and vegetation
amount is less than for dark soil with a low infrared reflectance.
5.3.2 Solar elevation
Two interrelated factors contribute to the effect of solar elevation on the reflectance of a vegetation
canopy. The first is the degree to which solar radiation can penetrate the canopy and this is negatively
related to solar elevation. The second is the amount of canopy shadow and is positively related to solar
elevation. As a result most canopies have a negative relationship between nearinfrared reflectance and
solar elevation and poor relation or no relation between visible reflectance and solar elevation.
5.3.3 Sensor elevation
The elevation of the sensor determines the amount of substrate and shadow seen. As the elevation
moves from the vertical, the area of soil and shadow seen by the sensor decreases and area of
vegetation increases.
5.3.4 Relative solar and sensor azimuth
For most remote sensing applications where sensor look angle is nearly vertical the effect of solar
azimuth on reflectance increases with decrease in solar angle and increase in vegetation canopy
roughness.
Different vegetation cover types may have different reflectance. The reflectance of the same type of
vegetation may also vary due to different factors. One of these is the phenology of plants. What is
Phenology in plants? Phenology is the study of periodic plant life cycle events and how these are
influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as
elevation). The next figure shows the NDVI of a land surface / periodic plant life cycle events which
was influenced by seasonal and interannual variations.
Figure 3: Time series of NDV and Vegetation cover

Some of the factors affecting soil reflectance are:

 Moisture content.
 Soil texture (proportion of sand, silt, and clay)
 Surface roughness.
 Presence of iron oxide.
 Organic matter content.