COMPARING PROSAIL AND INFORM RADIATIVE TRANSFER MODELS FOR LEAF AREA INDEX ESTIMATION IN EUCALYPTUS PLANTATIONS

The leaf area index (LAI) is an important variable in many mechanistic models describing ecological processes in forestry ecosystems. However, the accuracy of these models is limited by the quality and availability of LAI. Several radiative transfer models have been proposed over the last decades, being PROSAIL and INFORM two prominent examples. The inversion of these models allows the retrieval of canopy scale biophysical variables like LAI. However, these models differ in their complexity. While PROSAIL was designed to describe homogenous, dense leafy canopies such as crops, INFORM accounts for the additional complexity of forestry canopies by using additional parameters such as crown shadow, and crown transmissivity among others. This study aims to compare the inversion performance of both models to retrieve LAI from a commercial Eucalyptus plantation. The results have shown that PROSAIL outperforms INFORM.