Biophysical Remote Sensing

Remote sensing may be used to collect information on several important biophysical variables. This capability is in addition to the standard use of remotely sensed data for land-use and land-cover mapping. The status of work on remotely sensing nine fundamental biophysical variables is presented, including planimetric (x, y) location, topographic-bathymetric (x, y, z) elevation, color and the spectral signature of features, vegetation chlorophyll absorption characteristics, vegetation biomass, vegetation moisture content, soil moisture content, surface temperature, and texture or surface roughness. Remotely sensed ratio-scaled data on these biophysical variables may be more amenable for use in models and simulations than the nominal-scale land-use data. Emphasis is placed on current remote sensing capability and future potential and on the optimum spectral region(s) for sensing these biophysical variables.