Remote Sensing of Land Surface Phenology II

Dear Colleagues,

Land surface phenology (LSP) involves the use of multitemporal remote sensing data to monitor seasonal and interannual dynamics in vegetated land surfaces, to retrieve phenological metrics (start/end/duration of growing season, annual integrals, multi-year trend in primary production, etc.), and to provide bio-indicators of ongoing climate change. Traditional plant phenology provides very accurate information on individual plant species, but has limited spatial coverage. Remote sensing is especially well-suited for use in the monitoring of vegetation phenology at the local to global scales due to its ability to make continuous observations over a long period of time in different and complementary portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. First LSP studies started after the launch of ERTS-1 (Landsat-1) satellite in 1972, illustrating the possible use of space-borne greenness proxies to monitor vegetation phenology at regional scales. LSP, as an important field in environmental and climate remote sensing science, has undergone rapid development over the last few decades. Recent advances in field and spaceborne sensor technologies as well as data fusion techniques have enabled the development of novel LSP retrieval algorithms that refine LSP retrievals at even higher spatiotemporal resolutions, providing new insights into ecosystem dynamics. A first LSP Special Issue including 16 papers  was published in September 2022. We have organized this new Special Issue is organized to cover the latest developments in LSP research, especially in the following domains: improving LSP retrievals using recent advances in sensor performances and multi-sensor approaches (data fusion); assessing and reducing the uncertainties in LSP retrievals, comparisons of algorithms and development of a versatile more generalized algorithm; proposing improved satellite LSP validation strategies using ground observations, UAV imagery and phenocams; near-real-time monitoring of LSP and its applications in agriculture and forestry; tracking the long-term trends of LSP and its interaction with regional climate; and exploring the interactions between LSP and human activities factors. We look forward to receiving your contributions!

Dr. Bernard Lacaze
Prof. Dr. Nicolas Delbart
Guest Editors

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• land surface phenology
• vegetation dynamics
• climate change
• optical, microwave, chlorophyll fluorescence
• multisensor integration
• geostationary satellite
• micro/nanosatellite constellation
• unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• phenology cameras and citizen science
• open source computer code, software, hardware
• ecological surveillance and forecasting
• near-real-time monitoring

• Remote Sensing of Land Surface Phenology in Remote Sensing (16 articles)