International audienceThis paper presents a field platform for continuous measurement of fluorescence at the canopy level. It consists of a 21-m-high crane equipped for fluorescence measurements. The crane is installed in the middle of the fields dedicated to agricultural research. Thanks to a jib of 24 m and a railway of 100 m distance, fluorescence measurements can be performed at nadir viewing over various field crops. The platform is dedicated to the development and test of future passive or active airborne and space-borne vegetation sensors. A new fully automatic instrument, called TriFLEX, has been installed at the end of the jib. TriFLEX is designed for passive measurement of fluorescence in the oxygen A and B absorption bands. It is based on three spectrometers and allows for continuous measurements with a repetition rate of about 1 Hz. The data products are the radiances of the target, the fluorescence flux at 687 and 760 nm, and several vegetation indexes, including the photochemical reflectance index and the normalized difference vegetation index. A new algorithm for fluorescence retrieval from spectral bands measurement is described. It improves upon the well-known Fraunhofer line discriminator method applied to passive fluorescence measurement by taking into account the spectral shape of fluorescence and the reflectance of vegetation. A measurement campaign of 38 days has been carried out in summer 2008 over a sorghum field. The evolution of the signals showed that the crop was suffering from stress due to lack of water. After several rainy days, a reversion of the water stress was observed

A semi-automatic system was developed to monitor micro-plots of wheat cultivars in field conditions for phenotyping. The system is based on a hyperspectral radiometer and 2 RGB cameras observing the canopy from ~1.5 m distance to the top of the canopy. The system allows measurement from both nadir and oblique views inclined at 57.5° zenith angle perpendicularly to the row direction. The system is fixed to a horizontal beam supported by a tractor that moves along the micro-plots. About 100 micro-plots per hour were sampled by the system, the data being automatically collected and registered thanks to a centimetre precision geo-location. The green fraction (GF, the fraction of green area per unit ground area as seen from a given direction) was derived from the images with an automatic segmentation process and the reflectance spectra recorded by the radiometers were transformed into vegetation indices (VI) such as MCARI2 and MTCI. Results showed that MCARI2 is a good proxy of the GF, the MTCI as observed from 57° inclination is expected to be mainly sensitive to leaf chlorophyll pigments. The frequent measurements achieved allowed a good description of the dynamics of each micro-plot along the growth cycle. It is characterised by two periods: the first period corresponding to the vegetative stages exhibits a small rate of change of VI with time; followed by the senescence period characterised by a high rate of change. The dynamics were simply described by a bilinear model with its parameters providing high throughput metrics (HTM). A variance analysis achieved over these HTMs showed that several HTMs were highly heritable, particularly those corresponding to MCARI2 as observed from nadir, and those corresponding to the first period. Potentials of such semi-automatic measurement system are discussed for in field phenotyping applications.

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a radiation flux emitted by chlorophyll molecules in the red (RSIF) and far red region (FRSIF), and is considered as a potential indicator of the functional state of photosynthesis in remote sensing applications. Recently, ground studies and space observations have demonstrated a strong empirical linear relationship between FRSIF and carbon uptake through photosynthesis (GPP, gross primary production). In this study, we investigated the potential of RSIF and FRSIF to represent the functional status of photosynthesis at canopy level on a wheat crop. RSIF and FRSIF were continuously measured in the O 2 -B (SIF687) and O 2 -A bands (SIF760) at a high frequency rate from a nadir view at a height of 21 m, simultaneously with carbon uptake using eddy covariance (EC) techniques. The relative fluorescence yield (Fyield) and the photochemical yield were acquired at leaf level using active fluorescence measurements. SIF was normalized with photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to derive apparent spectral fluorescence yields (ASFY687, ASFY760). At the diurnal scale, we found limited variations of ASFY687 and ASFY760 during sunny days. We also did not find any link between Fyield and light use efficiency (LUE) derived from EC, which would prevent SIF from indicating LUE changes. The coefficient of determination (r 2 ) of the linear regression between SIF and GPP is found to be highly variable, depending on the emission wavelength, the time scale of observation, sky conditions, and the phenological stage. Despite its photosystem II (PSII) origin, SIF687 correlates less than SIF760 with GPP in any cases. The strongest SIF-GPP relationship was found for SIF760 during canopy growth. When canopy is in a steady state, SIF687 and SIF760 are almost as effective as PAR in predicting GPP. Our results imply some constraints in the use of simple linear relationships to infer GPP from SIF, as they are expected to be better predictive with far red SIF for canopies with a high dynamic range of green biomass and a low LUE variation range.

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Abstract. The CEFLES2 campaign during the Carbo Europe Regional Experiment Strategy was designed to provide simultaneous airborne measurements of solar induced fluorescence and CO 2 fluxes. It was combined with extensive ground-based quantification of leaf-and canopy-level processes in support of ESA's Candidate Earth Explorer Mission of the "Fluorescence Explorer" (FLEX). The aim of this campaign was to test if fluorescence signal detected from an airborne platform can be used to improve estimates of plant mediated exchange on the mesoscale. Canopy fluorescence was quantified from four airborne platforms using a combination of novel sensors: (i) the prototype airborne sensor AirFLEX quantified fluorescence in the oxygen A and B bands, (ii) a hyperspectral spectrometer (ASD) measured reflectance along transects during 12 day courses, (iii) spatially high resolution georeferenced hyperspectral data cubes containing the whole optical spectrum and the thermal region were gathered with an AHS sensor, and (iv) the first employment of the high performance imaging spectrometer HYPER delivered spatially explicit and multi-temporal transects across the whole region. During three measurement periods in April, June and September 2007 structural, functional and radiometric characteristics of more than 20 different vegetation types in the Les Landes region, Southwest France, were extensively characterized on the ground. The campaign concept focussed especially on quantifying plant mediated exchange processes (photosynthetic electron transport, CO 2 uptake, evapotranspiration) and fluorescence emission. The comparison between passive sun-induced fluorescence and active laser-induced fluorescence was performed on a corn canopy in the daily cycle and under desiccation stress. Both techniques show good agreement in detecting stress induced fluorescence change at the 760 nm band. On the large scale, airborne and ground-level measurements of fluorescence were compared on several vegetation types supporting the scaling of this novel remote sensing signal. The multi-scale design of the four airborne radiometric measurements along with extensive ground activities fosters a nested approach to quantify photosynthetic efficiency and gross primary productivity (GPP) from passive fluorescence.

Abstract. The CEFLES2 campaign during the Carbo Europe Regional Experiment Strategy was designed to provide simultaneous airborne measurements of solar induced fluorescence and CO2 fluxes. It was combined with extensive ground-based quantification of leaf- and canopy-level processes in support of ESA's Candidate Earth Explorer Mission of the "Fluorescence Explorer" (FLEX). The aim of this campaign was to test if fluorescence signal detected from an airborne platform can be used to improve estimates of plant mediated exchange on the mesoscale. Canopy fluorescence was quantified from four airborne platforms using a combination of novel sensors: (i) the prototype airborne sensor AirFLEX quantified fluorescence in the oxygen A and B bands, (ii) a hyperspectral spectrometer (ASD) measured reflectance along transects during 12 day courses, (iii) spatially high resolution georeferenced hyperspectral data cubes containing the whole optical spectrum and the thermal region were gathered with an AHS sensor, and (iv) the first employment of the high performance imaging spectrometer HYPER delivered spatially explicit and multi-temporal transects across the whole region. During three measurement periods in April, June and September 2007 structural, functional and radiometric characteristics of more than 20 different vegetation types in the Les Landes region, Southwest France, were extensively characterized on the ground. The campaign concept focussed especially on quantifying plant mediated exchange processes (photosynthetic electron transport, CO2 uptake, evapotranspiration) and fluorescence emission. The comparison between passive sun-induced fluorescence and active laser-induced fluorescence was performed on a corn canopy in the daily cycle and under desiccation stress. Both techniques show good agreement in detecting stress induced fluorescence change at the 760 nm band. On the large scale, airborne and ground-level measurements of fluorescence were compared on several vegetation types supporting the scaling of this novel remote sensing signal. The multi-scale design of the four airborne radiometric measurements along with extensive ground activities fosters a nested approach to quantify photosynthetic efficiency and gross primary productivity (GPP) from passive fluorescence.

This paper reviews the currently available optical sensors, their limitations and opportunities for deployment at Eddy Covariance (EC) sites in Europe. This review is based on the results obtained from an online survey designed and disseminated by the Co-cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ESO903-"Spectral Sampling Tools for Vegetation Biophysical Parameters and Flux Measurements in Europe" that provided a complete view on spectral sampling activities carried out within the different research teams in European countries. The results have highlighted that a wide variety of Sensors 2011, 11 7956 optical sensors are in use at flux sites across Europe, and responses further demonstrated that users were not always fully aware of the key issues underpinning repeatability and the reproducibility of their spectral measurements. The key findings of this survey point towards the need for greater awareness of the need for standardisation and development of a common protocol of optical sampling at the European EC sites.

International audienceA field platform dedicated to fluorescence measurements (INRA, Avignon, France) was used to monitor the fluorescence emission of a sorghum field during its growing period. The measurements were performed continuously at the canopy level, from seeding to maturity. A passive instrument based on three spectrometers was used to monitor the evolution of fluorescence fluxes and vegetation indexes such as Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Fluorescence fluxes were retrieved from radiances, using the filling-in of the atmospheric oxygen absorption bands, at 687 and 760 nm. In parallel, leaf fluorescence spectra, canopy height, and leaf chlorophyll contents were acquired during the growth. Both PRI and NDVI indexes varied with the development of the sorghum field: we observed that NDVI was more sensitive during the early stage of the growth. However, NDVI saturates before the PRI index. Fluorescence fluxes at 687 nm (Fs687) and 760 nm (Fs760) showed an overall increase: Fs687 increased more rapidly at the beginning of growth but trends to saturate while Fs760 still increase. During the growth, the Fs687/Fs760 ratio at the canopy level is found lower than at leaf level. At canopy level, the ratio decreased when the leaf chlorophyll content increases. A decrease was also observed at leaf level with a lower extend. This more important decrease of the fluorescence ratio at canopy level is attributed to a reabsorption of red fluorescence (Fs687) during its transfer through the canopy layers. In the context of forthcoming large-scale remote sensing application, the modification of the leaf level fluorescence emission by the structure of the canopy observed in this article is one of the major issues that must be addressed to interpret the fluorescence signal