Canopy spectral invariants. Part 1: A new concept in remote sensing of vegetation

The concept of canopy spectral invariants expresses the observation that simple algebraic combinations of leaf and canopy spectral reflectance become wavelength independent and determine two canopy structure specific variables - the recollision and escape probabilities. These variables specify an accurate relationship between the spectral response of a vegetation canopy to incident solar radiation at the leaf and the canopy scale. They are sensitive to important structural features of the canopy such as forest cover, tree density, leaf area index, crown geometry, forest type and stand age. This paper presents the mathematical basis of the concept which is linked to eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the three-dimensional radiative transfer equation.