Evaluating the potential of the red edge and

xanthophyll wavelength bands onboard the

SumbandilaSat satellite for assessing vegetation
state, in Eucalyptus plantations

Russell Main, Moses Cho, Jan van Aardt, and Bongani Majeke

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),

Ecosystems – Earth Observation, Pretoria, South Africa

14ARSPC 2008, Darwin

Russell Main
30th September 2008
Effect
• Earthof spectral studies have for many years made use of data from
observation
resolution ? space- and airborne sensors.
multispectral
• an alternative to manual labour

• However, narrowband hyperspectral sensors provide spectral

information of increasing detail.
• useful in discriminating between vegetation states
• Disadvantages of hyperspectral remote sensing:
• (i) the cost of data acquisition
• (ii) low signal-to-noise ratios of spaceborne hyperspectral data, and
• (iii) data redundancy
• Reduction of hyperspectral data dimensionality
• Identification of application-specific spectral features
• Lead to new application-centric multispectral sensors.
http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu www.eka.com
Slide 2 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za
 Introduction
• SUNSPACE aim to launch SumbandilaSat in 2008 / 2009
Range (nm) Band Centre Proposed
(nm) Applications
Soil / vegetation
Blue band 440 – 510 475
interactions
Plant physiological
Xanthophyll band 520 – 540 530
state

Green band 520 – 590 555 Plant vigour

Chlorophyll
Red band 630 – 685 657
absorption

Red-edge band 690 – 730 710 Plant stress

Plant-biomass
NIR band 845 – 890 867
estimates

• Two experimental bands

• 6.25m resolution
• Nadir and 300 off nadir
• Sun synchronous
Slide 3 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za
Aim
• To investigate whether fewer, strategically placed multispectral
wavebands could provide information similar to hyperspectral
sensor datasets.

Red Edge Band (690-730

Xanthophyll Band (520-540

(690
(520

nm)
nm)

Slide 4
Materials and Methods

• Study site
• KwaZulu-Natal midlands, South Africa
• 4 year old E. grandis
• Site qualities (good, medium, poor) based
on Total Available Water (TAW) in soil
(Smith 2005)

• Spectral measurements
• ASD spectroradiometer
• Using a cherry picker
• Four measurements using 250 at 1m to
1.5m above canopy
• 68 canopies sampled

Slide 5
KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Slide 6 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Materials and Methods
• Data analysis
• Canopy ASD data spectrally resampled to AVIRIS, Hyperion,
HyMap, and SumbandilaSat resolutions
• Various spectral indicators were calculated for each sensor
• ANOVA to differentiate site quality

• Leaf water indices

• Moisture Stress Index (MSI), Water Band Index (WBI)
• Chlorophyll indices
• Carter Index (CI), Red Edge Position (REP)
• Xanthophyll indices
• Photochemical reflectance index (PRI)
• Structural indices
• NDVI, MSAVI, SARVI

Slide 7 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Slide 8 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za
Materials and Methods
• Data analysis (cont.)
• Well established physiology- and structure-based
vegetation indices were tested
• Leaf water indices [Moisture Stress Index (MSI), Water Band
Index (WBI)]
• Chlorophyll indices [Carter Index (CI), Red Edge Position
(REP)]
• Xanthophyll indices [Photochemical reflectance index (PRI)]
• Structural indices [NDVI, MSAVI, SARVI]

Slide 9 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

 Continuum removal

Slide 10 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Results
• Assessing differences in site quality using narrowband indices
• ASD-calculated continuum-removed indices (i.e. BDR and NBDI)
exhibited significant (P<0.05) differences between site qualities (692 -
750 nm)
• Similar results for AVIRIS, Hyperion, and HyMap continuum-removed
indices 1.00
0.95
0.90
0.85
0.80
Normalised band depth index P values

0.75
0.70
0.65
0.60
0.55
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
650 660 670 680 690 700 710 720 730 740 750
Slide 11 Wavelength (nm)
Not significant Significant
 Results
• Assessing differences in site quality

• ANOVA results

Datt Index
(R850+R710) / (R850-R680)

Datt Index 2
R850 / R710

Slide 12
 0.43

F(2, 65)=4.4944, p=.01485

Results 0.42

0.41

0.40

ASD moisture stress index

0.39

0.38

0.37

0.36

0.35

0.34

0.33
Good Medium Poor
Site quality

a) ASD MSI
0.955 0.090
F(2, 65)=4.1383, p=.02034
F(2, 65)=4.8543, p=.01084 0.085
0.950
0.080

HyMap normalised difference water index

0.075
0.945
AVIRIS water index

0.070

0.940 0.065

0.060
0.935
0.055

0.050
0.930

0.045

0.925 0.040
Good Medium Poor Good Medium Poor
Site quality Site quality
Slide 13
b) AVIRIS WI c) HyMap NDWI
 0.78 722.4
F(2, 65)=7.4464, p=.00123
722.2
F(2, 65)=5.0739, p=.00896
0.77
722.0

721.8
0.76

AVIRIS four point REP (nm)

721.6
Hyperion Datt index

0.75 721.4

721.2

0.74 721.0

720.8
0.73
720.6

720.4
0.72
720.2

0.71 720.0
Good Medium Poor Good Medium Poor
Site quality Site quality
a) Hyperion Datt Index b) AVIRIS linear four point interpolation REP
0.80 724.2
F(2, 65)=7.7075, p=.00099
F(2, 65)=5.1974, p=.00806 724.0
0.79

723.8

HyMap four point REP (nm)

0.78
Sumbandila Datt index

723.6

0.77 723.4

723.2
0.76

723.0

0.75
722.8

0.74
Good Medium Poor 722.6
Good Medium Poor
Slide 14 Site quality © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za
Site quality
c) SumbandilaSat Datt Index d) HyMap linear four point interpolation REP
 Summary
• Hyperspectral results:
• As can be expected
• Revealed the potential of water and chlorophyll spectral features for
discriminating between site qualities as defined by TAW
• Broadband (SumbandilaSat) results:
• Reduced number of spectral features
• However, two broadband chlorophyll-related indices were successful
• These two involved the Red Edge band (690-730nm)
• In line with literature (i.e. Datt 1999; Coops 2003; Mutanga 2004)
• Xanthophyll-related indices found no significant differences
• Canopy-scale relationships sensitive to canopy structure, soil
noise, atmospheric effects etc.

Slide 15 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

 Conclusion
• Hyperspectral data offer more opportunities to calculate a
variety of indices
• However, simulated SumbandilaSat data were successfully
used in assessing canopy chlorophyll-related differences
• E. Grandis / Winter / KZN midlands of South Africa

• More research needed

• Strategic placement of the red-edge band – Justified ?

• Could contribute to cost effective large area vegetation state

assessments and regional ecosystem modelling efforts

Slide 16 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Acknowledgements
• Mondi Business Paper, South Africa

• The South African Department of Science and

Technology

• The CSIR
 Materials and methods

Table 1. Response of foliar nutrient concentrations to

differences in site qualities for E. grandis plantations
during winter and summer. The interaction effect refers
to season-nutrient interactions.
Winter Summer Interacti
Nutrie on effect
ANOVA Tukey ANOVA Tukey
nt
p- post- p- post-
Hidden Slide For values hoc values hoc

Questions!!! N 0.60 0.03 GvsP* 0.01*

P 0.55 0.00 GvsP**, 0.00**

MvsP*
K 0.02* GvsM* 0.00 GvsP*, 0.01*
MvsP**
Ca 0.01* GvsM*, 0.09 0.00**
MvsP*
Mg 0.62 0.00 MvsP* 0.01*

S 0.76 0.68 0.62

P=poor, M=medium and G=good sites, *p<0.05, **p<0.01

Na 0.28 0.10 0.12

Slide 18 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Discussion (cont.)
• South African winter is cold and dry, hence soil water a site-
limiting factor

• Summer is warm and wet = remobilisation of leaf nutrients,

hence ability to discriminate between sites using nutrients

• Hidden Slide For Questions!!!!!!

Slide 19 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Presentation Outline

• Background & Introduction • Discussion

• Materials & Methods • Conclusions
Study site
Spectral measurements • Acknowledgements
Nutrient measurements
Data analysis

• Results
Using foliar nutrient
concentrations
Using predicted foliar nutrient
concentrations
Using spectral indices
Slide 20 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za
Background (Cont.)
Carnegie Airborne Observatory

• Landscape level

LIDAR

Slide 21 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Background (Cont.)
• …integrated sensing approach…
• Also addressed at foliar chemistry level

• Sumbandila satellite:
• Multi-spectral sensor
• 6 bands – 2 are experimental
i.e. red edge (690 – 730nm) and
xanthophyll bands (520 – 540nm)
• 6.25m spatial resolution

Slide 22 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

 ASD AVIRIS Hyperion HyMap SumbandilaSat
Water-related indices
NDWI 0.02* 0.02* 0.02* 0.02*
MSI 0.01* 0.01* 0.02* 0.01*
WI 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.01*

Chlorophyll indices
R700/R675 0.55 0.67 0.62 0.36 0.95
R750/R550 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.12 0.68
R750 / R700 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.04*

CI 0.04* 0.08 0.09 0.04*

DI 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.01*

DI2 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.01* 0.01*

Max REP 0.01* 0.19

Four Point REP 0.00* 0.00* 0.00* 0.00*
Extrap. REP 0.01* 0.05* 0.04* 0.02*
Slide 23 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Xanthophyll indices
Background

Slide 24 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Introduction
• Information on water and nutrient supplies is vital in
precision agriculture

• Need timely information on the availability of soil water and

nutrients over broad areas

• Remote sensing methods viewed as an alternative to

manual labour
• Based on: changes in vegetation physiological state are
likely to influence spectral reflectance properties

Slide 25 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Introduction (Cont.)
• Lack of applied remote sensing research in determining
site factors affecting growth of E. grandis in South Africa

• Influence of spectral resolution on detecting site quality

differences?

• Important in cost effective ecosystem state

assessments

Slide 26 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Introduction
• Earth observation studies have for many years made use of data from
multispectral space- and airborne sensors.
• an alternative to manual labour

• However, narrowband hyperspectral sensors provide spectral

information of increasing detail.
• useful in discriminating between vegetation states

• Disadvantages of hyperspectral remote sensing:

• (i) the cost of data acquisition
• (ii) low signal-to-noise ratios of spaceborne hyperspectral data, and
• (iii) data redundancy
• Reduction of hyperspectral data dimensionality
• Identification of application-specific spectral features
• Definition of new application-centric multispectral sensors.

Slide 27 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za

Aim

• To investigate whether fewer, strategically placed

multispectral wavebands could provide information
similar to hyperspectral sensor datasets.

Slide 28
 Formula Physiological significance References

Water-related indices

Normalised difference Sensitive to vegetation

(R860 nm – R1240 nm)/ (R860 nm + R1240 nm) Gao 1996
water index (NDWI) canopy water content
Moisture stress index
(R1600 nm) / (R820 nm) Sensitive to leaf water stress Hunt & Rock 1989
(MSI)
Peñuelas et al.
Water index (WI) (R970 nm) / (R900 nm) Sensitive to leaf water
1993

Chlorophyll indices

Sensitive to chlorophyll Gitelson et al.

R700/R675 (R700 nm) / (R675 nm)
content 1993
Sensitive to chlorophyll Lichtenhaler et al.
R750/R550 (R750 nm) / (R550 nm)
content 1996
Sensitive to chlorophyll Lichtenhaler et al.
R750 / R700 (R750 nm) / (R700 nm)
content 1996
Sensitive to chlorophyll
Carter Index (CI) (R760 nm) / (R695 nm) Carter 1994
content
Sensitive to chlorophyll
Datt Index (DI) (R850 nm – R710 nm) / (R850 nm – R680 nm) Datt 1999
content
Sensitive to chlorophyll
Datt Index (DI2) (R850 nm) / (R710 nm) Datt 1999
content
Maximum red-edge Wavelength of maximum first derivative in
Chlorophyll and nitrogen Horler et al 1983
position (Max REP) the red-edge region
Linear four point 700 + 40(Re – R700 nm) / (R740 nm – R700 nm),
interpolation technique where 700 and 40 are constants and Re = Chlorophyll and nitrogen Guyot & Baret 1988
(Four point REP) (R670 nm + R780 nm)/2
Linear extrapolation
Slide 29 © CSIR 2008 www.csir.co.za Cho & Skidmore
See Cho & Skidmore, 2006 Chlorophyll and nitrogen
technique (Extrap. REP) 2006
Results
• Assessing differences in site quality

• ANOVA results

Slide 30
Results
• Assessing differences in site quality using broadband indices
• Only four of the chlorophyll-related indices and none of the water-related
indices could be calculated

• Two chlorophyll-related indices (DI & DI2) significantly differentiated

between site qualities (P<0.05).

Slide 31