PROVE Land Cover and Leaf Area of Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, 1997

Field measurement of shrubland ecological properties is important for both site monitoring and validation of remote-sensing information. During the NASA Earth Observing System Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE) at the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, on May 20-30, 1997, we calculated plot-level plant area index, leaf area index, total fractional cover, and green fractional cover with data from four instruments: (1) a Dycam Agricultural Digital Camera (ADC), (2) a LI-COR LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer, (3) a Decagon sunfleck ceptometer, and (4) a laser altimeter. Estimates from the LAI-2000 and ceptometer were very similar (plant area index 0.3, leaf area index 0.22, total fractional cover 0.19, green fractional cover 0.14), but the ADC produced values 5 to 10% higher. Laser altimeter values, depending on the height cutoff used to establish total fractional cover, were either higher or lower than the other instruments' values: a 10-cm cutoff produced values approximately 80% higher, whereas a 20-cm cutoff produced values approximately 30% lower.