Solar induced terrestrial plant fluorescence derived of ten years of SCIAMACHY data.

Abstract:

Plant fluorescence has a direct link to photosynthetic efficiency. Satelite-based remote sensing has been shown to have the potential to derive it on a global scale- accordingly it became subject of various recently published studies and stimulated an upsurge in this research field. This study presents a novel retrieval method for solar induced terrestrial plant fluorescence (SIF). When used with typical spectrometer data an additive spectral component not induced by fluorescence is often accompanying the actual SIF retrieval and can significantly deteriorate the results. To account for this effect a correction method is combined with the retrieval. The method has been applied to ten years of SCIAMACHY data with promising results. In absence of large area ground based validation data a final judgement of the results presented is not feasible. A direct comparison to data of others was showing promising and in certain regions ambivalent results.