Seasonal change in understory reflectance of boreal forests and influence on canopy vegetation indices

One objective of the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmospheric Study (BOREAS) is to increase our understanding of the nature of canopy spectral bidirectional reflectance in the visible/near-infrared regimes for open canopies typical of boreal forest stands. For such stands, the need to characterize the reflectance of the sunlit and shaded vegetated understory is critical. These variables are subject to temporal variability due to differences in species …