Land surface parameters derived from SPOT/VEGETATION data for use in meteorological models

In atmospheric models, the initialization of soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer scheme (SVAT) requires a few surface parameters like leaf area index (LAI), fraction of vegetation and albedo. These parameters are currently based on look-up tables and land cover maps. This paper presents different means to derive land cover maps, LAI and albedo over France using the SPOT/VEGETATION data for the year 2000. The geometric and radiometric quality of SPOT/VEGETATION leads to an improvement of surface parameters compared to AVHRR products.