Estimation of biochemical and functional characteristics of vegetation
is a unique capability of imaging spectrometer data. Serbin et al.
(2015-in this issue) use imaging spectrometer data to estimate two important
measures of vegetation photosynthetic capacity: the maximum
rate of RuBP (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate) carboxylation (Vcmax) and activation
energy (EV), which indicates the sensitivity of Vcmax to temperature.
Using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), they create models
to estimate pixel-level Vcmax and EV for agricultural crops in California.
Their models show strong relationships (R2 ≥ 0.90) between Vcmax and
EV measured remotely and in the field. Their results suggest that scalable
methods for mapping photosynthetic capacity will be achievable using
HyspIRI VSWIR data. The addition of HyspIRI TIR data could permit measurement
of changes in photosynthetic capacity with temperature