Monitoring fall foliage coloration dynamics using time-series satellite data

Fall foliage coloration is a phenomenon that occurs in many deciduous trees and shrubs worldwide. Measuring the phenology of fall foliage development is of great interest for climate change, the carbon cycle, ecology, and the tourist industry; but little effort has been devoted to monitoring the reg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing of environment 2011-02, Vol.115 (2), p.382-391
Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaoyang, Goldberg, Mitchell D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied geophysics
Biological and medical sciences
Dynamics
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Fall foliage coloration
Foliage
Foliage phase
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Internal geophysics
MODIS
Monitoring
Phenology
Teledetection and vegetation maps
Temporally-normalized brownness
Time-series satellite data
Trajectories
Vegetation
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Summary:Fall foliage coloration is a phenomenon that occurs in many deciduous trees and shrubs worldwide. Measuring the phenology of fall foliage development is of great interest for climate change, the carbon cycle, ecology, and the tourist industry; but little effort has been devoted to monitoring the regional fall foliage status using remotely-sensed data. This study developed an innovative approach to monitoring fall foliage status by means of temporally-normalized brownness derived from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. Specifically, the time series of the MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was smoothed and functionalized using a sigmoidal model to depict the continuous dynamics of vegetation growth. The modeled temporal NDVI trajectory during the senescent phase was further combined with the mixture modeling to deduce the temporally-normalized brownness index which was independent of the surface background, vegetation abundance, and species composition. This brownness index was quantitatively linked with the fraction of colored and fallen leaves in order to model the fall foliage coloration status. This algorithm was tested by monitoring the fall foliage coloration phase using MODIS data in northeastern North America from 2001 to 2004. The MODIS-derived timing of foliage coloration phases was compared with in-situ measurements, which showed an overall absolute mean difference of less than 5 days for all foliage coloration phases and about 3 days for near peak coloration and peak coloration. This suggested that the fall foliage coloration phase retrieved from the temporally-normalized brownness index was qualitatively realistic and repeatable. ►A sigmoidal model depicts the continuous dynamics of vegetation phenology. ►Temporal NDVI trajectory determines temporally-normalized brownness. ►Temporally-normalized brownness quantifies fall foliage coloration phases. ►Fall foliage coloration from MODIS data presents consistent spatial pattern.
ISSN:0034-4257
1879-0704
DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2010.09.009