Improved estimation of leaf chlorophyll content of row crops from canopy reflectance spectra through minimizing canopy structural effects and optimizing off-noon observation time

Leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), as an important indicator of photosynthetic capacity and nitrogen status, has been non-destructively estimated from canopy reflectance spectra in recent studies. They have also found significant canopy structure and solar angle effects on canopy reflectance spectra, especially for row-structured open crop canopies with varying sunlit and shaded soil backgrounds over seasonal and diurnal cycles. Since the canopy …