Next Step in Vegetation Remote Sensing: Synergetic Retrievals of Canopy Structural and Leaf Biochemical Parameters

Shortwave remote sensing signals acquired from vegetation contain information not only for vegetation structure, such as leaf area index and clumping index, but also for leaf biochemical parameters, such as pigments, nitrogen content, water content, dry matter, etc. However, the retrievals of these two types of parameters are generally carried out separately without considering the influence of one type of parameters on the spectral signals used to retrieve the other type of parameters. Since green leaves would be very different from brown leaves in performing photosynthesis and transpiration, we suggest that a next step in vegetation remote sensing be directed towards synergetic retrievals of these two types of parameters for the purpose of improving regional and global carbon and water cycle estimation.