Leaf Area Indices During the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics - Multisensor Aircraft Campaign

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Multisensor Airborne Campaign (FED MAC):
Leaf Area Indices

The Biospheric Sciences Branch (formerly Earth Resources Branch)
within the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center and associated University investigators are involved in
a research program entitled Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) which is
fundamentally concerned with vegetation change of forest ecosystems at
local to regional spatial scales (100 to 10,000 meters) and temporal
scales ranging from monthly to decadal periods (10 to 100 years). The
nature and extent of the impacts of these changes, as well as the
feedbacks to global climate, may be addressed through modeling the
interactions of the vegetation, soil, and energy components of the
boreal ecosystem.

The LI-COR LAI-2000 leaf area index meter [LI-COR, Lincoln, NB] was
used to estimate LAI in the FED research areas. This
device uses two sensors, one reference ('above' or 'A') sensor set up
in an area with unrestricted view of the sky, and a second,
('below canopy' or 'B') sensor that is moved through the vegetation to
acquire within canopy measurements. The reference
sensor was programmed to acquire horizon-to-horizon incident light
levels at 30 or 60 second intervals during the time that the
within canopy sensor was in use measuring light levels at known
locations within the forest. The data for both sensors is recorded
with a time stamp on attached data loggers and then dumped to a
computer through an integral RS-232 port for analysis. The data
logging units may also be joined with a cable and the data combined
and analyzed in the field, but this option was not used this
season.

The FED Home Page is at: "https://forest.gsfc.nasa.gov/".