Modelling sun-induced fluorescence and photosynthesis with a land surface model at local and regional scales in northern Europe

Recent satellite observations of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) are thought to provide a large-scale proxy for gross primary production (GPP), thus providing a new way to assess the performance of land surface models (LSMs). In this study, we assessed how well SIF is able to predict GPP in the Fenno-Scandinavian region and what potential limitations for its application exist. We implemented a SIF model into the JSBACH LSM and used active leaf level chlorophyll fluorescence measurements (ChlF) to evaluate the performance of the SIF module at a 20 coniferous forest at Hyytiälä, Finland. We also compared simulated GPP and SIF at four Finnish micrometeorological flux measurement sites to observed GPP as well as to satellite observed SIF. Finally, we conducted a regional model simulation for the Fenno-Scandinavian region with JSBACH and compared the results to SIF retrievals from the GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2) space-borne spectrometer and to observation-based regional GPP estimates. Both observations and simulations revealed that SIF can be used to estimate GPP at both site and regional scales. The GOME-2 based SIF was a better proxy for GPP than the remotely sensed fAPAR (fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active 25 radiation by vegetation), even though high SIF values occurred during early spring at the northern latitudes, although these are not likely to be associated with photosynthesis. Biogeosciences Discuss., doi:10.5194/bg-2016-514, 2016 Manuscript under review for journal Biogeosciences Published: 28 November 2016 c © Author(s) 2016. CC-BY 3.0 License.