V. Bruniquelpinel et Jp. Gastelluetchegorry, SENSITIVITY OF TEXTURE OF HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGES OF FOREST TO BIOPHYSICAL AND ACQUISITION PARAMETERS, Remote sensing of environment, 65(1), 1998, pp. 61-85
This article presents a quantitive analysis of the sensitivity of text
ural information of high resolution remote sensing images of a forest
plantation (Les Landes, France) to a number of biophysical parameters:
crown diameter, distance between trees and rows, tree positioning, le
af area index (LAI), and tree height. Influence of acquisition paramet
ers (spatial resolution, spectral domain and viewing, and illumination
configurations) is also investigated. The work is realized with the d
iscrete anisotropic radiative transfer model (DART) simulated images w
ith which we quantify texture with variograms. Results point out the c
omplex dependency of variogram characteristics (range, sill, amplitude
of oscillations) on biophysical and acquisition parameters. Neglect o
f spatial variations of the reflectance of canopy elements, as in most
geometric-optical models, can lead to important errors. This stresses
the interest of accurate radiative transfer models, such as DART. Alt
hough tree crown diameter is the most influential biophysic parameter,
its influence may be totally masked by acquisition parameters. Finall
y, theoretical results were tested against high resolution airborne da
ta (1.67 m resolution). Although encouraging results were obtained, th
is work both confirms the difficulty of extracting reliable texture in
formation from real remote sensing data, and stresses the usefulness o
f radiative transfer models for studying the texture of high resolutio
n satellite images. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1998.