A domain wall model for spectral reflectance of plant leaves

We model a plant leaf by using two-dimensional domain walls with internal structures. Such domain walls can be found as soliton solutions in field theory describing magnetic materials. The radiation scattered by such domain walls behaves quite similar to the spectral reflectance of plant leaves. The model nicely simulates the spectral reflectance of a plant leaf as a function of the wavelength. I. Introduction. The study of the spectral behavior of vegetables is often used to investigate the characteristics of the electromagnetic radiation reflected by plant leaves, a plant as whole or a collection of plants. We should emphasize that the study of the spectral behavior in general means the study of spectral reflectance, spectral transmittance and spectral absorbance. Concerning the interaction of the solar energy with vegetables, the plant leaf plays a special role because it basically realizes the photosynthesis that is responsible by the formation of carbon compounds. The whole configuration of a plant leaf including form, position, structures, etc, adapts to receive in a most efficient way the solar beams, air and water which are necessary for realizing photosynthesis. Thus the knowledge of the properties of a plant leaf is clearly fundamental, especially in the study of the re-flectance of a plant or even a culture of plants. Such predominance of the plant leaf is so important that the area of the other part of the plant in contact with the solar radiation is completely neglected [1, 2]. It is obvious , however, that the data obtained from a unique plant leaf cannot be used directly, without modifications, to a culture of plants. This is because there exist qualitative and quantitative differences between the aspects of unique plant leaf and a culture of plants in a field. The structures of the cells that constitute the three tissues of the leaves vary with the specie and ambient conditions. The compounds of the leaf that are of considerable importance in the study of interaction of a leaf with the radiation are: cellulose that are found in the cellular walls, solutes like ions and molecules, intercellular spaces and pigment inside chloroplasts such as carotene, xantho-phyll and chlorophyll. The spectral behavior of a plant leaf is a function of its compounds, morphology and internal structure. Since the characteristics of the plant leaves are genetically controlled there exist differences in the spectral behavior among groups that are genetically distinct. The Fig. 1 …