Investigation of Tree Spectral Reflectance Characteristics Using a Mobile Terrestrial Line Spectrometer and Laser Scanner

In mobile terrestrial hyperspectral imaging, individual trees often present large variations in spectral reflectance that may impact the relevant applications, but the related studies have been seldom reported. To fill this gap, this study was dedicated to investigating the spectral reflectance characteristics of individual trees with a Sensei mobile mapping system, which comprises a Specim line spectrometer and an Ibeo Lux laser scanner. The addition of the latter unit facilitates recording the structural characteristics of the target trees synchronously, and this is beneficial for revealing the characteristics of the spatial distributions of tree spectral reflectance with variations at different levels. Then, the parts of trees with relatively low-level variations can be extracted. At the same time, since it is difficult to manipulate the whole spectrum, the traditional concept of vegetation indices (VI) based on some particular spectral bands was taken into account here. Whether the assumed VIs capable of behaving consistently for the whole crown of each tree was also checked. The specific analyses were deployed based on four deciduous tree species and six kinds of VIs. The test showed that with the help of the laser scanner data, the parts of individual trees with relatively low-level variations can be located. Based on these parts, the relatively stable spectral reflectance characteristics for different tree species can be learnt.