Methodologies and uncertainties in the use of the terrestrial chlorophyll index for the sentinel-3 mission

A methodology is described for the validation of Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index (MTCI) data over heterogeneous land surfaces in an agricultural region in Southern Italy. The approach involves the use inverse canopy reflectance modeling techniques to derive maps of canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) and leaf area index (LAI) at fine spatial resolution. Indirect field measurements are used for validation of the fine spatial resolution data. Subsequently, these maps are aggregated based on a regular grid at 1 km spatial resolution to validate MERIS Level 2 MTCI (300 m). RapidEye satellite sensor data with a pixel size of 6.5 m are used for this purpose. Based on a set of independent ground measurements, fine spatial resolution maps achieved an R2 = 0.78 and RMSE = 0.39 for CCC and R2 = 0.76 and RMSE = 0.64 for LAI. The relationship between MERIS L2 MTCI and CCC [g·m−2] achieved a coefficient of determination of 0.74 and it resulted to be extremely statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). Additionally, a relative validation of two other satellite products at medium resolution spatial scale, namely MERIS leaf area index (LAI) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) LAI was performed by comparison with the fine spatial resolution LAI map. Results indicated a better accuracy in LAI estimation of MERIS (RMSE = 0.33) compared to MODIS (RMSE = 0.81) data