On January 21, Prof. FANG Hongliang, a renowned remote sensing scientist with the CAS Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research delivered an academic report themed "Production and Validation of Global Leaf Area Index Products" on the 97th Academic Forum of RADI.

In his report, Dr. Fang first introduced the current studies of global leaf area index (LAI) products and showed the map of global leaf area index products uncertainties, which was validation results of several domain products such as MODIS and GEOV1 through three methods (direct comparison, bridging method and cross-validation).

Taking paddy rice experiment in the Sanjiang Plain as example, he focused on clumping index and its influence on LAI estimation. Dr. Fang elaborated the campaign design and sampling strategy of the experiment in Sanjiang Plain. Leaf area index was measured by destructive method and optical method, and was used to compute clumping index. The relationship between clumping index and plant area index/ leaf area index/ stem and seeds area index was analyzed as well as the seasonal change of clumping index.

Dr. Fang also briefed the producing algorithm of high resolution LAI products and made comparison between the products derived from Landsat, IKONOS and airborne images over Washington, DC area. Another comparative study in Sanjiang Plain was introduced, LAI of four different paddy rice stages were estimated and validated by HJ, MODIS and GEOV1.

Based on the results, he gave advice for the generation of LAI products using high resolution satellite such as Landsat 8 and GF.

Prof. Fang works for the CAS Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, with a research focus on land surface parameters retrieval and validation, including uncertainty analysis of land surface parameters, radiative transfer model, parameter retrieval methodology as well as reprocessing and application of parameter products. Prof. Fang got his Doctor’s degree in 2003 at the Geography Department, University of Maryland. Then he served in the Geography Department, University of Maryland and NASA for a decade to study quantitive remote sensing of vegetation and data assimilation. He has published more than 50 journal papers, among which over 30 papers are SCI cited.

　　Prof. Fang delivering a academic report at RADI.