Remote sensing for estimating chlorophyll amount in rice canopies

The authors examined the feasibility of radiometrical remote sensing for leaf chlorophyll amount of rice canopies under field conditions and applications of this concept to crop conditions related to leaf nitrogen content. They measured spectral reflectance, leaf chlorophyll amount, and leaf nitrogen content of rice canopies at each development state. LANDSAT TM equivalent band set was created by averaging measured spectral reflectance values to the real TM band range. Chlorophyll amount was highly significant in the visible ranged TM equivalent band and in the biband ratios of NIR(TM4) and VIS(TM3, TM2, TM1) region. In addition, leaf chlorophyll amount was closely related to leaf nitrogen content and was applied therefore to estimate the leaf nitrogen content in rice canopies.