Estimating Wheat Equivalent Water Thickness Using Landsat TM/ETM+ Data

Atmospheric corrected Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) band reflectances are used to develop a new index to monitor vegetation water content (VWC) in terms of equivalent water thickness (EWT, cm). This paper outlines the first part of a research program to investigate the potential and physical basis of wavelengths in the optical domain to assess the VWC. Then, a method called vegetation water content index (VWCI) were developed using SWIR, and NIR wavelengths of ETM+ data. The relationship between the EWT at canopy level is explored through linking leaf reflectance data obtained from PROSPECT with canopy reflectance from SailH and in-situ measurements. Significant correlations are found between canopy EWT and the developed index for both modeled and ground measured data.