Novel Measurements of Fine-Scale Albedo: Using a Commercial Quadcopter to Measure Radiation Fluxes

Remote sensing of radiative indices must balance spatially and temporally coarse satellite measurements with finer-scale, but geographically limited, in-situ surface measurements. Instruments mounted upon an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can provide small-scale, mobile remote measurements that fill this resolution gap. Here we present and validate a novel method of obtaining albedo values using an unmodified quadcopter at a deciduous northern hardwood forest. We validate this method by comparing simultaneous albedo estimates by UAV and a fixed tower at the same site. We found that UAV provided stable albedo measurements across multiple flights, with results that were well within the range of tower-estimated albedo at similar forested sites. Our results indicate that in-situ albedo measurements (tower and UAV) capture more site-to-site variation in albedo than satellite measurements. Overall, we show that UAVs produce reliable, consistent albedo measurements that can capture crucial surface heterogeneity, clearly distinguishing between different land uses. Future application of this approach can provide detailed measurements of albedo and potentially other vegetation indices to enhance global research and modeling efforts.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Remote Sensing

• Publication date

  2018-08-18

• Fields of study

  Computer Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/rs10081303
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• The role of surface roughness, albedo, and Bowen ratio on ecosystem energy balance in the Eastern United States

  2018cited by this paper
• Dominance of grain size impacts on seasonal snow albedo at open sites in New Hampshire

  2017cited by this paper
• Derivation of High Spatial Resolution Albedo from UAV Digital Imagery: Application over the Greenland Ice Sheet

  2017cited by this paper
• Estimating the effective spatial resolution of the operational BRDF, albedo, and nadir reflectance products from MODIS and VIIRS

  2016cited by this paper
• Small unmanned aerial vehicles (micro-UAVs, drones) in plant ecology

  2016cited by this paper
• Early spring post-fire snow albedo dynamics in high latitude boreal forests using Landsat-8 OLI data.

  2016cited by this paper
• Adapting observationally based metrics of biogeophysical feedbacks from land cover/land use change to climate modeling

  2016cited by this paper
• A general method to normalize Landsat reflectance data to nadir BRDF adjusted reflectance

  2016cited by this paper
• Correction of broadband snow albedo measurements affected by unknown slope and sensor tilts

  2016influential reference
• Continuous, long-term, high-frequency thermal imaging of vegetation: Uncertainties and recommended best practices

  2016cited by this paper
• Spatial scaling of reflectance and surface albedo over a mixed-use, temperate forest landscape during snow-covered periods

  2015influential reference
• Metrics for biogeophysical climate forcings from land use and land cover changes and their inclusion in life cycle assessment: a critical review.

  2015cited by this paper
• Biophysical forcings of land‐use changes from potential forestry activities in North America

  2014cited by this paper
• Forest summer albedo is sensitive to species and thinning: how should we account for this in Earth system models?

  2014cited by this paper
• Evaluation of MODIS albedo product (MCD43A) over grassland, agriculture and forest surface types during dormant and snow-covered periods

  2014cited by this paper
• Modeling and Monitoring Terrestrial Primary Production in a Changing Global Environment: Toward a Multiscale Synthesis of Observation and Simulation

  2014influential reference
• Trade-offs between three forest ecosystem services across the state of New Hampshire, USA: timber, carbon, and albedo.

  2014cited by this paper
• Intercomparison of Landsat albedo retrieval techniques and evaluation against in situ measurements across the US SURFRAD network

  2014cited by this paper
• Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles will revolutionize spatial ecology

  2013cited by this paper
• Terrestrial ecosystems from space: a review of earth observation products for macroecology applications

  2012cited by this paper
• Intercomparison of MODIS albedo retrievals and in situ measurements across the global FLUXNET network

  2012influential reference
• Robust Regression in R An Appendix to An R Companion to Applied Regression, Second Edition

  2011cited by this paper
• Observed increase in local cooling effect of deforestation at higher latitudes

  2011cited by this paper
• Implications of albedo changes following afforestation on the benefits of forests as carbon sinks

  2011cited by this paper
• Remote sensing-supported vegetation parameters for regional climate models: a brief review.

  2010cited by this paper
• Evaluation of snow albedo in land models for weather and climate studies

  2010cited by this paper
• An R Companion to Applied Regression

  2010cited by this paper
• Validation of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedo retrieval algorithm: Dependence of albedo on solar zenith angle

  2009cited by this paper
• The MODIS (Collection V005) BRDF/albedo product: Assessment of spatial representativeness over forested landscapes

  2009influential reference
• The net carbon drawdown of small scale afforestation from satellite observations

  2009cited by this paper
• Radiative forcing over the conterminous United States due to contemporary land cover land use albedo change

  2008cited by this paper
• Protecting climate with forests

  2008cited by this paper
• Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests

  2008cited by this paper
• Biogeophysical effects of land use on climate : Model simulations of radiative forcing and large-scale temperature change

  2007cited by this paper
• Albedo, atmospheric solar absorption and heating rate measurements with stacked UAVs

  2007cited by this paper
• Refining light-use efficiency calculations for a deciduous forest canopy using simultaneous tower-based carbon flux and radiometric measurements

  2007cited by this paper
• Linking snowpack microphysics and albedo evolution

  2006cited by this paper
• The Impact of Boreal Forest Fire on Climate Warming

  2006cited by this paper
• Offset of the potential carbon sink from boreal forestation by decreases in surface albedo

  2000cited by this paper
• A Comparison of Satellite-Derived Spectral Albedos to Ground-Based Broadband Albedo Measurements Modeled to Satellite Spatial Scale for a Semidesert Landscape

  2000cited by this paper
• A Model for the Spectral Albedo of Snow. II: Snow Containing Atmospheric Aerosols

  1980cited by this paper

• Bidirectional-thruster multirotor for perimeter pipe inspections (BiMPPI): A nonlinear optimal integral-SDRE design.

  2025cites this paper
• Spatial albedo mapping using an autonomous rover for site assessment of bifacial PV power plant

  2024cites this paper
• Effect of Albedo Footprint Size on Relationships between Measured Albedo and Forest Attributes for Small Forest Plots

  2024cites this paper
• A New Methodology for Estimating Surface Albedo in Heterogeneous Areas from Satellite Imagery

  2023cites this paper
• Spatial Variability of Albedo and Net Radiation at Local Scale Using UAV Equipped with Radiation Sensors

  2023cites this paper
• Net Climate Effects of Moose Browsing in Early Successional Boreal Forests by Integrating Carbon and Albedo Dynamics

  2023cites this paper
• UAV hyperspectral imaging for multiscale assessment of Landsat 9 snow grain size and albedo

  2023cites this paper
• Variation in albedo and other vegetation characteristics in non-forested northern ecosystems: the role of lichens and mosses

  2023cites this paper
• An Operational Methodology for Validating Satellite-Based Snow Albedo Measurements Using a UAV

  2022influential citation
• Estimating 10-m land surface albedo from Sentinel-2 satellite observations using a direct estimation approach with Google Earth Engine

  2022cites this paper
• Fine-Spatial Boreal-Alpine Single-Tree Albedo Measured by UAV: Experiences and Challenges

  2022cites this paper
• Airborne Measurements of Surface Albedo and Leaf Area Index of Snow‐Covered Boreal Forest

  2021cites this paper
• Assessing the impact of illumination on UAV pushbroom hyperspectral imagery collected under various cloud cover conditions

  2021cites this paper
• Drones provide spatial and volumetric data to deliver new insights into microclimate modelling

  2021cites this paper
• Maximum Entropy Modeling to Identify Physical Drivers of Shallow Snowpack Heterogeneity using Unpiloted Aerial System (UAS) Lidar

  2021cites this paper
• Plant Breeding and Management Strategies to Minimize the Impact of Water Scarcity and Biotic Stress in Cereal Crops under Mediterranean Conditions

  2021cites this paper
• Permeability and voids influence on the thermal signal, as inferred by multitemporal UAV-based infrared and visible images

  2020cites this paper
• Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AAVs) as a Tool for Improving the Spatial Resolution of Snow Albedo Measurements in Mountainous Regions

  2020influential citation
• Boreaalisten metsien albedosta

  2020cites this paper
• Applications of Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in Forest Hydrology

  2020cites this paper
• Including albedo in time‐dependent LCA of bioenergy

  2020cites this paper
• Surface albedo and reflectance: Review of definitions, angular and spectral effects, and intercomparison of major data sources in support of advanced solar irradiance modeling over the Americas

  2019cites this paper
• Editorial for Special Issue: "Remotely Sensed Albedo"

  2019cites this paper
• DiagonalNet: Confidence diagonal lines for the UAV detection

  2019cites this paper
• Climate impact of surface albedo change in Life Cycle Assessment: Implications of site and time dependence

  2019cites this paper
• Measuring Landscape Albedo Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

  2018cites this paper