Predicting eucalypt biochemistry from HYPERION and HYMAP imagery

Hyperspectral remote sensing methods are advancing rapidly and offer the promise of estimating canopy pigment, bio-chemistry and water content dynamics, which can in turn be linked to carbon assimilation, forest growth and photosynthetic capacity models. The recent EO-1 HYPERION mission and associated field campaigns with ground based spectra and HYMAP airborne 5m hyperspectral imagery has allowed foliage bio-physical and bio-chemistry variables of eucalypt vegetation to be analyzed in conjunction with remotely sensed spectra. The paper will report on the prediction of eucalypt leaf bio-chemistry from ground based, airborne and satellite spectra and detail the approaches used to extrapolate these results from individual leaves to regional scales to allow estimates of the carbon cycle to be made across the landscape using combinations of inverse modeling and remote sensing. The paper details results from eucalypt forest near Tumbarumba (Bago-Maragle State Forest), Australia which has a number of eucalypt species, ranging in productivity and age.