Celebrating fifty years of NASA and Earth observations from space.Part VI: Ecosystem science

摘要

NASA’s role in developing remote sensing applications for Ecosystem science is noteworthy. Remote sensing satellites enabled studies of the land, aquatic and ocean ecosystems by measuring radiance in the visible and near infrared spectral bands.This led to the ‘greenness’ measures of terrestrial ecosystems. Development of vegetation indices from ground based spectral and satellite bands followed.Relationships between these spectral indices and leaf area and biomass were established. These research results gave rise to the satellite based methodologies to track changes in vegetation growth and development and to map the cyclic patterns in ecosystems. Biomass and primary productivity measurements from satellites enable global scale mapping of functioning of ecosystems.