BOREAS Leaf Optical Data for SSA Boreal Species

Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) TE-12 team data contains hemispherical spectral reflectance and transmittance measurements for individual boreal vegetation components. Measurements cover leaves, needles from three growth years, twigs, and substrate, collected at four SSA sites in 1993 and 1994 using a LI-COR LI-1800-12 integrating sphere and Spectron Engineering SE590 spectroradiometer. The dataset supports research into the optical properties of northern forest vegetation.

Use Cases

• Calibrating remote sensing vegetation indices using spectral reflectance factors of leaves and needles.
• Modeling canopy radiative transfer by incorporating species-specific leaf transmittance data.
• Studying seasonal and interannual variation in needle optical properties across three years of growth.
• Analyzing substrate reflectance to understand understory contributions to overall scene reflectance.
• Validating spectral mixture models with measurements from distinct vegetation components (twigs, leaves, substrate).

Strengths

• Measurements follow a documented, peer-reviewed methodology (Daughtry et al., 1989).
• Data includes multiple sample types: leaves, needles of three ages, twigs, and substrate.
• Samples were collected from four distinct SSA sites (Fen, YJP, YA, OBS).
• Optical properties were measured for two consecutive field seasons (1993, 1994).

Limitations

• Exact row count, file size, and complete column names are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last update date: one states 1994-09-15, another states 2026-03-13 (likely a metadata refresh).

Provenance

Source

BOREAS TE-12 team, organized by ORNL_CLOUD.

Collection Method

Field measurements using a LI-COR LI-1800-12 integrating sphere attached to a Spectron Engineering SE590 spectroradiometer.

Time Range

1993 to 1994

Freshness

2026-03-13 07:11:18.422201

Geography

BOREAS Southern Study Area (SSA) sites: Fen, YJP, YA, and OBS.