Constraining model simulations of GPP using satellite retrieved leaf chlorophyll

A prominent issue with the state of current terrestrial biosphere models pertains to unrealistic parameterizations of model parameters in space and time. Key biochemical controls on carbon uptake by vegetation canopies are typically assigned fixed literature-based values for broad categories of vegetation types despite the fact that these are affected by a complex interplay of environmental and physiological factors, which inevitable leads to significant temporal and spatial variability. Considering the high spatial and temporal resolution of current satellite constellations, candidate remote sensing techniques should play a key role in advancing model parameterizations and ultimately improve estimations of gas and energy fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. This study investigates the utility of remote sensing based retrievals of leaf chlorophyll for estimating leaf photosynthetic capacity (i.e. V_cmax) and for constraining model simulations of gross primary productivity (GPP).