THE ESA SENTINEL-2 MISSION VEGETATION VARIABLES FOR REMOTE SENSING OF PLANT MONITORING

Abstract

Remote sensing is a convenient method for plant monitoring by employing vegetation variables which is changed dynamically in time and space. Furthermore, in the last few decades the number and quality of information that can be derived from remotely sensed images is rapidly increased. The widespread usage of information from satellite-born sensors provides a new tool for studying the biophysical properties of vegetation by mapping vegetation resources and changes that arise over extended periods of time. The European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 mission, as a part of the European Global Monitoring for Environment (GMES) initiative, is a polar-orbiting, superspectral high resolution imaging mission that envisaged flying a pair of satellites; the first planned to launch in 2013. The Sentinel-2 mission combine a large swath, frequent revisit and systematic acquisition of high-spatial resolution land surfaces imagery with a large number of spectral bands; that will provide accurate and easily accessible data for the environmental management. The most important impact of Sentinel-2 for plant monitoring is expected to be the improved plant parameters: Fraction of Vegetation Cover (FVC), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Chlorophyll Content (Cab), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) and Leaf Water Content (Cw); by incorporating three new spectral bands in the red-edge region, which are centered at 705, 740 and 783 nm. The goal is to improve site-specific plant management by the retrieving different plant parameters as an input for management measures aimed to nondestructive monitoring of plant development and the detection of many environmental stresses, which can limit plant productivity.