Field Data Analysis

Emily L. Sayles
Student Airborne Research
Program
12 August 2009

Photo: Shawn Kefauver

 Overview
•2 Sites in California’s Central Valley
•Almond Orchard in Kern County
•Cotton Field in Kings County
•Collection of field data from July 20-
25, 2009
•Two DC-8 research flights over sites,
July 22 and 24, 2009
•Purpose of collecting ground data:
•Calibration of MASTER data
•Inputs for calculations of
evapotranspiration, etc.
Photo: SARP website
 Relevant Terms and Indices
Leaf Area Index (LAI)
•Leaf Area/Ground Area
•Dimensionless value Photosynthetically Active
Radiation (PAR)
•Range of light between 400-700 nm
Apogee Instruments,
Inc.

Chlorophyll Content Index

(CCI)
•Measures optical transmission through a leaf
•ratio of percent transmission at 931 nm to

SPAD
•Minolta’s Special Products
Analysis Division
•Measures difference in
optical density through a
Apogee Instruments,
leaf
 Instruments Used in the
Field LAI Readings

Hemispherical
Photography

AccuPAR
LiCOR LAI-2000 •One above
•One above canopy (open canopy (open
sky) sky)
•One below canopy •One below
•Twilight conditions needed canopy
•Concentric ring sensors •No restrictions
measure canopy light
 Instruments Used in the
Field SPAD
Measurements

Photo: Shawn
Kefauver

Konica Minolta Spadmeter

•2 sides of the tree (east,
west)
•3 levels of canopy (low, mid,
high)
•4 leaves per side/canopy
location
•6 readings per leaf
•Average to get one value
Summary of Field Data Collected and
Analyzed
Analysis of Hemispherical
Photographs
Threshold Value
 Analysis of Hemispherical
Photographs

•Highly subjective process •Average LAI per

•Concern for consistency photo
•2 HemiView analyses per •Average LAI per
photo
Agreement Between LAI Measurement
Techniques
LAI-2000 and Hemispherical
Photographs

•6 almond trees measured using both methods

•Half show good agreement, half show poor
agreement
Correlation Between Chlorophyll Content and Leaf
Area Index
Almond Trees

•Expected monotonic relationship between

CCI and LAI
•Data from photos show pretty well-defined
Correlation Between Chlorophyll Content and Leaf
Area Index
Cotton Field

•Wide scattering of
data
•No apparent trend
Nitrogen Treatment and LAI,
CCI
Almond Trees

Wide LAI and CCI

ranges for one
nitrogen treatment
 Summary of Field Data
Analysis
•Limited data sets with little overlap
•Correlation between LAI methods cannot be asserted
•Good agreement with expected results for almond LAI vs. CCI
using photos
•Rough correlation between almond LAI and CCI using LAI-
2000 (more scatter)
•Significant scatter in cotton LAI vs. CCI
•Rough correlation between nitrogen treatments and LAI, CCI
•Only one factor among many
•Future work:
•Analysis of AccuPAR LAI data
•Consideration of water, other nutrients in analysis of
nitrogen treatments
 Acknowledgeme
nts
•NASA Student Airborne Research
Program
•NSERC
•CSTARS, UC Davis
•Shawn Kefauver
•Dr. Susan Ustin
•Paramount Farms
Questions
?