Evaluating the Relationship between Field Aerodynamic Roughness and the MODIS BRDF, NDVI, and Wind Speed over Grassland

Aerodynamic roughness (AR) is an important parameter that influences the momentum and energy exchange between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere. In this study, profile wind data observed during the vegetation growing period (April–September) in 2013 and 2014 at the A’rou grassland station, which is in the upstream of the Heihe River Basin (HRB), were used to determine the relationship between the field AR and the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) near-infrared (NIR) bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) R index, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and a combination of these indices. In addition, the relationship between the average wind speed at a height of 1 m and the field AR is also presented. The results indicate that the MODIS NIR BRDF_R index and the NDVI are both sensitive indicators of the AR over grassland (R2: 0.5228 for NIR BRDF_R; R2: 0.579 for NDVI). Moreover, the combined index shows a significantly increased R2 value of 0.721, which is close to the result inferred from the wind speed (R2: 0.7411). The proposed remote sensing-based combination index (CI) has the potential for use in evaluations of the AR over grasslands during growing season and its sensitivity can reach levels that are comparable to considering the effects of wind speed, which usually requires ground-based observations.