Using multiple radiometric correction images to estimate leaf area index

Ecological applications of remote-sensing techniques are generally limited to images after atmospheric correction, though other radiometric correction data are potentially valuable. In this article, six spectral vegetation indices (VIs) were derived from a SPOT 5 image at four radiometric correction levels: digital number (DN), at-sensor radiance (SR), top of atmosphere reflectance (TOA) and post-atmospheric correction reflectance (PAC). These VIs include the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), ratio vegetation index (RVI), slope ratio of radiation curve (K), general radiance level (L), visible-infrared radiation balance (B) and band radiance variation (V). They were then related to the leaf area index (LAI), acquired from in situ measurement in Hetian town, Fujian Province, China. The VI-LAI correlation coefficients varied greatly across vegetation types, VIs as well as image radiometric correction levels, and were not surely increased by image radiometric corrections. Among all 330 VI-LAI models established, the R(2) of multi-variable models were generally higher than those of the single-variable ones. The independent variables of the best VI-LAI models contained all VIs from all radiometric correction levels, showing the potentials of multi-radiometric correction images in LAI estimating. The results indicated that the use of VIs from multiple radiometric correction images can better exploit the capabilities of remote-sensing information, thus improving the accuracy of LAI estimating.