New Vegetation Index and Its Application in Estimating Leaf Area Index of Rice

Leaf area index (LAI) is an important characteristic of land surface vegetation system, and is also a key parameter for the models of global water balancing and carbon circulation. By using the reflectance values of Landsat-5 blue, green and red channels simulated from rice reflectance spectrum, the sensitivities of the bands to LAI were analyzed, and the response and capability to estimate LAI of various NDVIs (normalized difference vegetation indices), which were established by substituting the red band of general NDVI with all possible combinations of red, green and blue bands, were assessed. Finally, the conclusion was tested by rice data at different conditions. The sensitivities of red, green and blue bands to LAI were different under various conditions. When LAI was less than 3, red and blue bands were more sensitive to LAI. Though green band in the circumstances was less sensitive to LAI than red and blue bands, it was sensitive to LAI in a wider range. When the vegetation indices were constituted by all kinds of combinations of red, green and blue bands, the premise for making the sensitivity of these vegetation indices to LAI be meaningful was that the value of one of the combinations was greater than 0.024, i.e. visible reflectance (VIS)>0.024. Otherwise, the vegetation indices would be saturated, resulting in lower estimation accuracy of LAI. Comparison on the capabilities of the vegetation indices derived from all kinds of combinations of red, green and blue bands to LAI estimation showed that GNDVI (Green NDVI) and GBNDVI (Green-Blue NDVI) had the best relations with LAI. The capabilities of GNDVI and GBNDVI to LAI estimation were tested under different circumstances, and the same result was acquired. It suggested that GNDVI and GBNDVI performed better to predict LAI than the conventional NDVI.