Effect of spatial resolution on estimating surface albedo: A case study in Speulderbos forest in The Netherlands

Abstract

Land surface albedo is one of the most important parameters accountable for the planetary radiative energy budget. It is known that albedo varies in both space and time as a result of various natural processes and human interventions. Especially in forest ecosystems these variations are much more intense due to inherent canopy structural differences and anticipated seasonal changes. In such environments, estimation of spatially distributed surface albedo poses challenges in terms of capturing the spatial variability using a remotely sensed sensor with a finite field of view. This study investigated the stand level surface albedo variability of a patchwork forest in the central part of The Netherlands. The data used for the study included airborne and satellite imageries and tower-based solar radiation measurements acquired through a dedicated field campaign. The imageries were preprocessed and atmospherically corrected to obtain top of the canopy (TOC) reflectance. The TOC reflectance bands in the visible and near-infrared domain were integrated to estimate spatially distributed surface albedo while the tower-based radiation measurements in the solar-reflective region were used to obtain the temporal variation of surface albedo over a needleleaf forest canopy. The diurnal variation of surface albedo is consistent with the previous findings for needleleaf forest canopies. The spatial mean surface albedo values estimated from remote sensing data for needleleaf (pure Douglas fir), broadleaf (pure Beech) and mixed forest classes are 0.09, 0.13 and 0.11, respectively. Both visual characteristics and descriptive statistics indicate that with increased pixel size, the spatial variability of albedo progressively decreases. The semivariogram analysis was more insightful to perceive the nature and causes of albedo spatial variability in different forest classes in relation to sensor spatial resolution.