Albedo of plant stand

Abstract

Among the numerous optical characteristics of the plant stand albedo is one of greatest importance. It is widely used in geophysics, geography, aerial photography, etc. In most cases the reflection coefficient (albedo) of a stand is smaller than that of the leaves composing it. The difference is caused by the mutual shading of leaves and by multiple scattering within the stand, which leads to the additional absorption of radiation. This ‘black body’ effect increases when the absorption coefficient of the leaves and the degree of multiple scattering increase. Since the mean degree of scattering of a beam is determined by its incident angle, geometrical structure of the stand, and also depends on the scattering coefficient, the albedo of a plant stand also depends on these factors. Since the spectral coefficients of reflection and transmission of living leaves show typical variations, the spectral reflection coefficient (albedo) follows the same type of variation (see, for example, the work of Alkseyev (1969)).