A study on the effects of viewing angle variation in sugarcane radiometric measures

Abstract

Remote Sensing techniques, such as field spectroscopy provide information with a large level of detail about spectral characteristics of plants enabling the monitoring of crops. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of viewing angle in estimating the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) for the case of sugarcane. The study on the variation of the spectral reflectance profile can help the improvement of algorithms for correction of BRDF in remote sensing images. Therefore, spectral measurements acquired on nadir and different off-nadir view angle directions were considered in the experiments. Change both anisotropy factor and anisotropy index was determined in order to evaluate the BRDF variability in the spectral data of sugarcane. BRDF correction was applied using the Walthall model, thus reducing the BRDF effects. From the results obtained in the experiments, the spectral signatures showed a similar spectral pattern varying mainly in intensity. The anisotropy factor which showed a similar pattern in all wavelengths. The visual analysis of the spectral reflectance profile of sugarcane showed variation mainly in intensity at different angles. The use of Walthall model reduced the BRDF effects and brought the spectral reflectance profiles acquired on different viewing geometry close to nadir viewing. Therefore, BRDF effects on remote sensing data of vegetation cover can be minimized by applying this model. This conclusion contributes to developing suitable algorithms to produce radiometrically calibrated mosaics with remote sensing images taken by aerial platforms.