Mapping Solar Induded Chlorophyll Fluorescence with TROPOMI
The rate of carbon uptake by vegetation is not fully known. In the previous decade, Solar Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) has been discovered as a new remote sensing signal of photosynthesis, that can help answer this question. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on Sentinel-5P enables the monitoring of SIF at global scale. In this topic you will use these data to analyse how SIF varies across a humidity or temperature gradient, either in Africa or in Eurasia. Practical issues such as cloud filtering and subsetting is part of the work, but also visualization and discussion of the findings, and placing them in the context of vegetation functioning in a changing climate.
The objective of this research is to analyse and interpret seasonal cycles of solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), a data product of TROPOMI for a wet-to-dry gradient in tropical Africa or a temperate-continental gradient in Eurasia.
The methodology consists of the acquisition of satellite data, sub-setting, quality filtering of the data, visualization and interpretation. For the interpretation you will use current understanding of the meaning of SIF for vegetation functioning.