Hyperspectral Imager for Measuring Plant Photosynthetic Activity

SPECIM, Finland, has announced the release of AisaIBIS. It is a robust and very high spectral resolution hyperspectral imager for ground and airborne measurement of sun-induced fluorescence from plants.

The most valuable feature of AisaIBIS is its ability to measure the secret light of plants, the weak sun-induced fluorescence signal. During the photosynthesis, plants convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy that fuels organism growth. During that process part of the absorbed light energy is emitted back as a faint glow – the fluorescence. Measured fluorescence can be used as an indicator of photosynthetic activity of the plant thus telling its health and vitality.

AisaIBIS is designed to measure the fluorescence signal by applying the Fraunhofer Line Depth Method. The method is very demanding for the instrument, as it requires high spectral resolution in the order of 0.25 nm, high dynamic range and high signal-to-noise ratio. AisaIBIS is the first commercial hyperspectral imager which meets these requirements even at the image rate required in airborne data collection. It works as a robust tool for mapping the sun-induced fluorescence from single leaves to complete ecosystems, stated Timo Hyvärinen, SPECIM sales director.

Global vegetation fluorescence maps

SPECIM created AisaIBIS together with Jülich Research Centre from Germany, as the Hyplant sensor, for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Explorer programme called FLEX. The project aims at providing global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity. AisaIBIS works as a precursor for a potential satellite instrument, and is used to produce airborne data for the development of fluorescence retrieval methods and investigation of the quantitative accuracy of the fluorescence measurement.

SPECIM is releasing AisaIBIS at the 5th International Workshop on Vegetation Fluorescence in Paris from 22 to 24 April, where scientists are presenting the latest results obtained with the first instrument.