A mixture modeling approach to estimate vegetation parameters for heterogeneous canopies in remote sensing

In this article, we describe a reflectance model which parametrizes the reflectance of vegetation canopies from optical properties of leaves and soil, and dominant canopy structural parameters. The model assumes certain principles of geometric models, for example, that sensor integrates the radiance reflected from three components, plant, shaded soil, and illuminated soil. Its inversion provides compositional information of the ground surface that is linked with the interpretation of the linear spectral mixture modeling (LSMM). This model also offers the potential for retrieving other meaningful biophysical properties such as LAI. The model has been tested on simulated spectra of spectral mixtures in presence of significant multiple scattering. Results indicate that this modeling approach is a suitable remote sensing tool for retrieving the vegetation abundance in heterogeneous canopies, which is interpreted as the fractional cover of plants with well-defined structural parameters. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 2000.