Thesis subject

MSc thesis topic: Scaling Sun induced Fluorescence (SIF) over agricultural fields from ground to airborne and satellite

Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is a promising proxy of the dynamic photosynthetic process in natural vegetation and agricultural crops. ESA is currently preparing the FLEX satellite mission to monitor SIF as proxy for global photosynthesis from space. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are flexible and cost-effective for acquiring SIF data at high temporal and spatial resolution. High temporal resolution measurements are of utmost importance to understand photosynthesis processes in plant phenotyping and precision agriculture.

In the summer of 2024, a large scale measurement campaign is organized to measure SIF for different land-use types (forest, crops, grassland, water) to compare observations acquired from ground, (unmanned) airborne, and satellite platforms. This will allow the analysis of spatial patterns of vegetation stress as indicated by SIF (limited photosynthesis) and for example characterize the effect of drought stress on crops.

Relevance to research/projects at GRS or other groups

  • The field campaign is a collaboration between GRS, the Meteorology group of WUR and Twente University.

Objectives and Research questions

  • Compare SIF values for different observation platforms and evaluate the influence of observation scale on SIF retrieval
  • Analyse spatial variation of SIF within agricultural fields to identify stress effects on crop growth.

Literature and information

Expected reading list before starting the thesis research

  • N Wang, JGPW Clevers, S Wieneke, H Bartholomeus, L Kooistra, 2022. Potential of UAV-based sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence to detect water stress in sugar beet. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 323, 109033

Theme:Sensing & measuring