Inversion and spatial scale effects analysis of Leaf Area Index

This paper presents an application in which field data, TM data and MODIS data are used for mapping LAI of Qianyanzhou in Jiangxi province, south China. The field LAI data are collected by Tracing Radiation and Architecture of Canopies (TRAC). We get the linear relationship between measured LAI and simple ratio vegetation index (SR: the ratio of NIR reflectance and Red reflectance) from the corresponding pixels, then the LAI image from TM data is produced and is referred as LAI ground true for further studies. After comparing and analyzing the different LAI images, it shows that the uncertainties really existed among the different kinds of the LAI images with same resolution, it also reveals that the spatial up-scaling effects are closely related to sub-pixel complicacy