Biophysical information in asymmetric and symmetric diurnal bidirectional canopy reflectance

The authors present a theory for partitioning the information content in diurnal bidirectional reflectance measurements in order to detect differences potentially related to biophysical variables. The theory, which divides the canopy reflectance into asymmetric and symmetric functions of solar azimuth angle, attributes asymmetric variation to diurnal changes in the canopy biophysical properties. The symmetric function is attributed to the effects of sunlight interacting with a hypothetical average canopy which would display the average diurnal properties of the actual canopy. The authors analyzed radiometer data collected diurnally in the Thematic Mapper wavelength bands from two walnut canopies that received differing irrigation treatments. The reflectance of the canopies varied with sun and view angles and across seven bands in the visible, near-infrared, and middle infrared wavelength regions. Although one of the canopies was permanently water stressed and the other was stressed in mid-afternoon each day, no water stress signature was unambiguously evident in the reflectance data.