SAFARI 2000 LAI MEASUREMENTS AT KALAHARI TRANSECT SITES, WET SEASON 2000

The Boston University team collected several data sets along the Kalahari Transect during the SAFARI 2000 wet season field campaign from March 3rd to March 18th, 2000 to support the validation of the MODIS LAI/FPAR algorithm. Ground measurements of LAI, FPAR, leaf hemispherical reflectance, leaf hemispherical transmittance, and canopy transmittance were made using a LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer, an AccuPAR ceptometer, a LiCor 1800-12S External Integrating Sphere (LI-1800) portable spectroradiometer, and an ASD handheld spectroradiometer. LAI data are provided in this data set. LAI was intensively measured at 4 different sites in Botswana -- Pandamatenga, Maun, Okwa River, and Tshane (from north to south) -- where vegetation types range from moist closed woodlands to arid sparsely-shrub-covered grasslands. LAI measurements were mostly made during dusk, shortly before and after sunset at ground level in Maun, Okwa, and Tshane and at two horizontal levels in Pandamatenga -- one 2.0 m above the ground to measure the LAI of trees and the other was at ground level for total LAI.This data set contains reduced LAI measurements made at two scales: a 1 km x 1 km transect scale and a 250 m x 300 m pixel scale. The transect LAI data are stored in one ASCII file containing all measurements along the three transects at each site. The pixel or subgrid LAI are stored in separate ASCII files for each site.