Remote sensing –Beyond images Mexico 14-15 December 2013 The workshop was organized by CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), CGIAR Research Program on Maize, the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Sustainable Modernization of the Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro)

1. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Institut für Bio- und Geowissenschaften
IBG-2: Pflanzenwissenschaften
Measuring and mapping canopy traits from the lab to the
field: sun-induced fluorescence for crop phenotyping
Uwe Rascher, Anke Schickling, Francisco Pinto
IBG-2, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany
Uwe Rascher
15. Dec 2013

2. Research Centre Jülich

3. Forschungszentrum Jülich
IBG-2: Plant Sciences
www.fz-juelich.de/ibg/ibg-2
140 employees, 45 scientists
25 PhD students
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Bioeconomy
Plant phenotyping
Adaptation to climate change
Sustainable bioproduction
Basic research to application

4. Phenotyping:
Quantification of plant traits in space and time
(including environmental and genetic constraints)
Plant Production
Breeding
momentary traits
Seasonal and spatial
development of traits
Precision farming
Guided breeding

5. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Development of new measurement
approaches for field phenotyping /
Remote Sensing
- Imaging Spectroscopy
- 3-D canopy reconstruction
- sun-induced fluorescence

6. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Development of new measurement
approaches for field phenotyping /
Remote Sensing
- Imaging Spectroscopy
- 3-D canopy reconstruction
- sun-induced fluorescence

7. Imaging Spectroscopy under field conditions to
quantify the spatio-temporal dynamics of shoot
traits
Chlorophyll
NPQ
Anthocyane
Chlorophyll
Carotinoide
Wavelength dependent
charakterization of
constituents of plants
and canopies

8. Mapping of spatio-temporal canopy dynamcis in
the field by imaging spectroscopy and 3-D canopy
reconstruction
Challange to quantify the changes in the multidimensional data
space and to relate structual and functional aspects of canopies

9. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Development of new measurement
approaches for field phenotyping /
Remote Sensing
- Imaging Spectroscopy
- 3-D canopy reconstruction
- sun-induced fluorescence

10. 3-D Canopy structure: Stereo Imaging allows the
quantification of canopy structure

11. 3-D Canopy structure: Stereo Imaging allows the
quantification of canopy structure

12. 3-D Canopy structure: Stereo Imaging allows the
quantification of canopy structure
 Zenith and azimuth of leaves can be quantified.
 Method is parameterized and established for
Arabidopsis, sugar beet, barley and apple trees
Biskup et al. (2007) Plant, Cell & Environ. 30, 1299-1308
Rascher et al. (2010) Photosynthesis Research 105, 15-25
Müller-Linow & Rascher (to be submitted) BMC

13. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Development of new measurement
approaches for field phenotyping /
Remote Sensing
- Imaging Spectroscopy
- 3-D canopy reconstruction
- sun-induced fluorescence

14. Chlorophyll Fluorescence
courtesy of C. Buschmann

15. Sun-induced fluorescence can be quantified in
the atmospheric absorption lines

16. Retrieval concept: Fraunhofer line
discrimination (FLD)
 Fluorescence can be retrieved in the relative dark atmospheric
absorption bands according to the Fraunhofer Line Depth (FLD)
method.
slope:
reflectance
intercept:
fluorescence
Plascyk (1975) Optical Engineering 14, 339–346
Carter et al. (1996) Remote Sensing of Environment 55, 89–92
Moya et al. (2004) Remote Sensing of Environment 91, 186–197

17. Mapping of spatio-temporal canopy dynamcis in
the field by high resolution imaging spectroscopy
Corn, sugar beet
and barley
Measurements at 7
m high.
Area: 1.5 x 2.7 m

18. HyPlant: a novel high performance imaging
spectrometer to measure sun-induced fluorescence
Module 1: Imaging spectrometer (380 – 2500 nm)
with 3 nm (VIS) and 12 nm (SWIR) spectral
resolution
Module 2: Fluorescence module (670 – 780 nm)
with 0.25 nm (FWHM) and 0.11 nm (SSI)

19. 2012 / 2013 data from agricultural area,
Germany
About one hundred flight lines from an agricultural area covering different
times during the day and different stages during the vegetation period
Georeferencing and radiometric calibration / characterization solved.
Retrieval of fluorescence ongoing.
600 meters  1 meter pixel resolution
1800 meters  3 meter pixel resolution

20. Extensive ground measurements to
characterize top-of-canopy fluorescence and
the functional status of photosynthesis

21. Agricultural site (Klein-Altendorf): first
images of sun-induced fluorescence (600m
height – 1m resolution)
2

22. Agricultural site (Klein-Altendorf): first
images of sun-induced fluorescence (600m
height – 1m resolution)
2

23. Currently evaluated in phase A / B1
300 m pixel resolution
7 days revisit time
Tandem mission with Sentinel 3
Earth Explorer 8, i.e. launch ~2020
(if successfully evaluated in 2015)
A proposed mission to observe photosynthetic activity from space
U. Rascher
on behalf of the FLEX Team and
ESA's Mission Assessment Group

24. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Field Phenotyping
Development of Infrastructure
- PhenoCrops
- DPPN
- airborne sensors

25. Field Phenotyping at Campus KleinAltendorf (University of Bonn)
 Experimental plots in the
greenhouse and field

26. Field Phenotyping at Campus KleinAltendorf (University of Bonn)
 Experimental plots in the
greenhouse and field
 Development of
automated, GPS guided
measurement plattform

27. Field Phenotyping at Campus KleinAltendorf (University of Bonn)
 Experimental plots in the
greenhouse and field
 Development of
automated, GPS guided
measurement plattform
 Zeppelin and UAVs with
dedicated sensors
Burkart et al. (2013) IEEE – Sensors, Sensors-8468-2013.

28. Mitglied der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft
Phenotyping – a networking approach
Developing and supporting
• Good Phenotyping Practice (GPP)
• Phenotyping platforms open for the
scientific community
• Efficient use of development and
infrastructure cost
• Technologies to be used in the community

29. Summary
Sun-induced fluorescence
 Can be retrieved using state-of-the-art spectrometers
and opens a new window in crop structure/function
 Top-of-canopy measurements and airborne
measurements allow the quantification of
 Canopy light absorption of active chlorophyll
(APARchl)
 Photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE)
Challenges for the next years
 Development of operational instrument for top-ofcanopy fluorescence measurements
 Operational processing of airborne HyPlant data to
fluorescence products

30. Thanks to
Hendrik Albrecht
Francisco Pinto
Sergej Bergsträsser
Andreas Burkhart
Luka Olbertz
Edelgard Schölgens
Marlene Müller
Benedikt Janssen
Angelina Steier
Vicky Temperton
Nicolai Jablonowski
Roland Pieruschka
Anke Schickling
Onno Muller
Mark Müller-Linow
Tim Malolepszy
and many more
Lutz Plümer
Björn Waske
Frank Ewert
Jens Leon
Matthias Langensiepen
Mauricio Hunsche
u.rascher@fz-juelich.de

31. Many Thanks to
Alexander Damm
Michael Schaepmann
Thomas Udelhoven
Luis Guanter
Joe Berry
Jose Moreno
Luis Alonso
Jochem Verelst
Micol Rossini
Roberto Colombo
Sergio Cogliati
Frantiszek Zemek
Jan Hanus
Lada Nedbal