2022

A new paper on Non-photochemical quenching estimates from in situ spectroradiometer measurements: implications on remote sensing of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence in lakes was published in Optics Express byRemika Gupana with contributions from Alexander Damm and Daniel Odermatt.

A new paper stating that Biodiversity mediates relationships between anthropogenic drivers and ecosystem services across global mountain, island and delta systems was published in Global Environmental Change with contributions from Alexander Damm.

RSWS participated in the 20th Swiss Remote Sensing Days and contributes to five presentations. Among them Jennifer Adams gave a talk about Thermal Infrared (TIR) research in Switzerland: The TRISHNA T-SEC Project. Remika Gupana talked about Quantum yield and quenching: Investigating phytoplankton sun-induced fluorescence from in-situ hyperspectral measurements in Lake Geneva. Jasmin Kesselring presented her results on Comparing the variability of abiotic parameters in structurally different forests using 3D virtual scenes and radiative transfer modelling. Joan Sturm gave a presentation on Assessing the 2018 drought response of Swiss forests and its dependence on different hydrological drivers.

We recently upgraded the Greifensee site with high resolution pointing spectrometer (RoX) continuously measuring irradiance and water leaving radiance. With this instrument, we expand our growing network of tower based spectrometer systems. A big Thank You to Michael and our Eawag colleagues making this possible! The pictue was taken by Michael Niederberger.

This is a great success! As part of GCOS Switzerland, MeteoSwiss funds our projectUrbaNature: Feedbacks between vegetation, carbon, energy, and water cycles in the urban environment. The project is an interdisiplinary collaboration between the University of Basel (S. Stagakis), ETH (N. Buchmann), Empa (D. Brunner) and us.

Joan Sturm participated in the ForestSAT 2022 conference and gave a presented latest results on The impact of different hydrological drivers on Forest Drought Response.

A new paper on Warming does not delay the start of autumnal leaf coloration
but slows its progress rate was published in Global Ecology and Biogeography
with contributions from Eugenie Paul-Limoges.

A new review paper on Multi-sensor spectral synergies for crop stress detection and monitoring in the optical domain: A review was published in the Remote Sensing of Environment with contributions from Alexander Damm.

A new paper on Insights for the Partitioning of Ecosystem Evaporation and
Transpiration in Short-Statured Croplands was published in the Journal of
Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences by Eugenie Paul-Limoges with contributions from Alexander Damm.

RSWS participated in the 12th EARSeL Workshop on Imaging Spectroscopy and contributes to seven presentations. Among them Jennifer Adams presented a poster on Modelling Thermal Anisotropy and Energy Balance in Forests. Alex Damm presented The FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) Mission: Imaging Spectroscopy In Very High Spectral Resolution and Challenges in the Retrieval and Interpretation of Sun-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence for Its Use in Ecosystem Research. Remika Gupana presented Non-photochemical Quenching From In-situ Spectroradiometer Measurements In Lakes: Implications On Phytoplankton Fluorescence Remote Sensing

RSWS, the Reserach Centre Jülich and Czech Globe joint forces to map various environments in Switzerland and Germany using the HyPlant fluorescence spectrometer, the TASI thermal imager and a LiDAR sensor. We sucessfully covered agricultural sites, glaciers, forest, lakes and urban areas. Resulting data will facilitate our research on ecosystem water relations in the context of climate extremes and biodiversity. The picture was taken by Patrick Rademske.

Possibilities to move Towards consistent assessments of in situ radiometric measurements for the validation of fluorescence satellite missions were published in Remote Sensing of Environment by Bastian Buman with contributions from Alexander Damm. The paper outlines strategies to evaluate the accuracy of in situ FloX measurements from the radiance measurement to the retrieved fluorescence product.

RSWS participated in the EGU General Assembly 2022 and contributes to five presentations. Among them Eugenie Paul-Limoges presented Insights for the Partitioning of Ecosystem Evaporation and Transpiration in Short-Statured Croplands.

RSWS participated at ESA's Living Planet Symposium 2022 and contributes to 11 presentations. Among them Remika Gupana presented her work on Quantum yield estimates from in situ spectroradiometer measurements and its implications on remote sensing of sun-induced fluorescence in lakes. Joan Sturm presented her work on Topography and stand characteristics controlled forest response to the 2018 drought in Switzerland.

These days we received our fourth FloX and our first two RoX spectrometer systems. These new instruments will be installed in two aquatic sites and contribute expanding our Swiss-Spec-Network.

The Swiss Remote Sensing Days were held the first time at Monte Verità. The workshop was initialized by the Swiss Commission on Remote Sensing (scnat) to network among the Swiss remote sensing community and discuss ongoing and future activities. The event was a large success! A big thank you to the main organizer Devis Tuja and the co-organizers Konrad Schindler and Alexander Damm and our various sponsors!!

A new paper on The relationship between ecosystem services and human modification displays decoupling across global delta systems was published in Communications Earth & Environment by Oliver Reader with contributions from Alexander Damm.

Jennifer Adams and Alexander Damm joint with colleagues from RSL's TIRLab the Trishna Days workshop. RSL contributes with a new project to TRISHNA mission preparation activities and particularly studies thermal emission characteristics in forests, glaciers, lakes and Tundra ecosytems.

A new paper on Mapping the spatial distribution of NO₂ with in situ and remote sensing instruments during the Munich NO₂ imaging campaign was published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques by Gerrit Kuhlmann with contributions from Alexander Damm. The paper provides insights on the potential of the airborne imaging spectrometer APEX to measure vertical column densities of atmospheric trace gas NO₂.

A new paper on Response times of remote sensing measured sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, surface temperature and vegetation indices to evolving soil water limitation in a crop canopy was published in Remote Sensing of Environment by Alexander Damm with contributions from Joan Sturm. We found a double response of SIF in relation to evolving water limitation and investigate temporal sensitivity of various remote sensing proxies for crop water limitation.

A new paper on impacts from the 2018 extreme summer drought event on Swiss forest ecosystems and the environmental variables influencing differing responses in drought resistance, recovery, and resilience has been published in Global Change Biology by Joan Sturm, Maria J. Santos, Bernhard Schmid, and Alexander Damm. Forests in close proximity to the forest edge, on southern facing slopes and at low elevations were found to have the lowest drought resistance but high recovery. Whereas, coniferous trees were attributed with the lowest resilience values.

A new contribution on Fractal geometry and the downscaling of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence imagery was published in the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series by Juan Quiros-Vargas with contributions from Alexander Damm. The book chapter suggests a new possible strategy to assess sub-pixel process dynamics of fluorescence measured with large scale satellite data.

A new paper on Combining near-infrared radiance of vegetation and fluorescence spectroscopy to detect effects of abiotic changes and stresses with contributions by Alex Damm was published in Remote Sensing of Environment. This study suggests a new NIRv based strategy to normalize structural effects in sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and demonstrates resulting increaed sensitivity to detect plant stress due to various abiotic factors.

We warmly welcome Jennifer Adams as joint Postdoctoral researcher between the Remote Sensing group and us. Jennifer will work on 3D modelling of thermal radiation in support of the upcoming French-Indian TRISHNA satellite mission. In addition, Jennifer will investigate possibilities to harmonize radiative transfer schemes for aquatic and terrestrial applications.

We warmly welcome Michael Niederberger as new IT-Specialist in our group. Michael will maintain and expand our Swiss-Spec-Network with additional FloX and RoX spectrometer systems in aquatic and terrestrial test sites.