Hybrid Geometric Optical–Radiative Transfer Model Suitable for Forests on Slopes

A new geometric optical (GO)-radiative transfer (RT) model with a multiple scattering scheme suitable for sloping forest canopies is developed in this study. It is based on a Geometrical-Optical model for Sloping Terrains and an RT method. This new model overcomes the difficulty to prescribe bidirectional reflectance factors (BRFs) of shaded components (shaded foliage and background) in GO modeling through simulating radiation multiple scattering within a sloping forest. A case study shows that multiply scattered radiation depends on topographic factors and leaf area index. The contributions of the shaded components to stand-level BRF are less than 3% in the red band and can reach up to 40% in the near-infrared (NIR) band. The “multiangle” Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data over sloping pixels are selected to validate the modeled forest BRF. Considering the multiple scattering schemes and topographic factors, the modeled BRF is closer to the MODIS surface reflectance (BRF product) (red band: R² = 0.8614, rRMSE = 0.1339; NIR band: R² = 0.7573, rRMSE = 0.0850) than the modeled BRF (red band: R² = 0.7771, rRMSE=0.1839; NIR band: R² =0.5176, rRMSE = 0.1155) without topographic consideration. It is also shown that the MODIS surface reflectance of sloping forests at multiple angles can be simulated well using the newly developed model.