Retrieval of carbon content and biomass from hyperspectral imagery over cultivated areas

Spaceborne imaging spectroscopy is a highly promising data source for all agricultural management and research disciplines that require spatio-temporal information on crop properties. Recently launched science-driven missions, such as the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP), deliver unprecedented data from the Earth’s surface. This new kind of data should be explored to develop robust retrieval schemes for deriving crucial variables from future routine missions. Therefore, we present a workflow for inferring crop carbon content (C(area)), and aboveground dry and wet biomass (AGB(dry), AGB(fresh)) from EnMAP data. To achieve this, a hybrid workflow was generated, combining radiative transfer modeling (RTM) with machine learning regression algorithms. The key concept involves: (1) coupling the RTMs PROSPECT-PRO and 4SAIL for simulation of a wide range of vegetation states, (2) using dimensionality reduction to deal with collinearity, (3) applying a semi-supervised active learning technique against a 4-years campaign dataset, followed by (4) training of a Gaussian process regression (GPR) machine learning algorithm and (5) validation with an independent in situ dataset acquired during the ESA Hypersense experiment campaign at a German test site. Internal validation of the GPR-C(area) and GPR-AGB models achieved coefficients of determination (R(2)) of 0.80 for C(area) and 0.80, 0.71 for AGB(dry) and AGB(fresh), respectively. The mapping capability of these models was successfully demonstrated using airborne AVIRIS-NG hyperspectral imagery, which was spectrally resampled to EnMAP spectral properties. Plausible estimates were achieved over both bare and green fields after adding bare soil spectra to the training data. Validation over green winter wheat fields generated reliable estimates as suggested by low associated model uncertainties (< 40%). These results suggest a high degree of model reliability for cultivated areas during active growth phases at canopy closure. Overall, our proposed carbon and biomass models based on EnMAP spectral sampling demonstrate a promising path toward the inference of these crucial variables over cultivated areas from future spaceborne operational hyperspectral missions.