Forestry Applications of DART Model

Dear Colleagues,

Scientific studies and operational monitoring of forest ecosystems increasingly rely on satellite, airborne and in situ proximal remote sensing observations, including innovative technologies of imaging spectroscopy and laser scanning (LiDAR). These non-invasive techniques provide information about spatial and temporal distribution of key forest biochemical and biophysical variables, such as contents of chemical foliage compounds and canopy architecture, which in turn improves our understanding of complex forest ecological and physiological processes. Yet, the inherent structural complexity of forests requires to scale leaf level information up to canopy or even ecosystem and biome level, which complicates interpretation of remote sensing data. Physically-based radiative transfer models are efficient tools to bridge this gap, provided that they meet a number of requirements and offer functionalities assuring acceptable models’ accuracy and performance. One of these requirements is an appropriate three dimensional (3D) geometrical and spatial description of sun, sensor, landscape and atmosphere features, for simulating accurate remote sensing acquisition and 3D radiative budget. The Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model fulfills this requirement, which explains its increasing use in forestry applications.

This Special Issue of Forests will overview the state-of-the-art use of DART in forestry research and applications. It will demonstrate the importance of physical 3D radiative transfer models for interpretation of remote sensing data, and will help to identify current gaps and future requirements for these models. Prospective authors are encouraged to document and share details of their work with DART in forest environments.

Dr. Jean-Philippe Gastellu-Etchegorry
Dr. Zbynek Malenovsky
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Feret
Dr. Tiangang Yin
Guest Editors

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