Remote sensing of photosynthetic light-use efficiency across two forested biomes: Spatial scaling

Eddy covariance (EC) measurements have greatly advanced our knowledge of carbon exchange in terrestrial ecosystems. However, appropriate techniques are required to upscale these spatially discrete findings globally. Satellite remote sensing provides unique opportunities in this respect, but remote sensing of the photosynthetic light-use efficiency (ε), one of the key components of Gross Primary Production, is challenging. Some progress has been made in recent years using the photochemical reflectance index, a narrow waveband index centered at 531 and 570 nm. The high sensitivity of this index to various extraneous effects such as canopy structure, and the view observer geometry has so far prevented its use at landscape and global scales. One critical aspect of upscaling PRI is the development of generic algorithms to account for structural differences in vegetation. Building on previous work, this study compares the differences in the PRI: ? relationship between a coastal Douglas-fir forest located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and a mature Aspen stand located in central Saskatchewan, Canada. Using continuous, tower-based observations acquired from an automated multi-angular spectro-radiometer (AMSPEC II) installed at each site, we demonstrate that PRI can be used to measure ? throughout the vegetation season at the DF-49 stand (r² = 0.91, p < 0.00) as well as the deciduous site (r² = 0.88, p < 0.00). It is further shown that this PRI signal can be also observed from space at both sites using daily observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) and a multi-angular implementation of atmospheric correction (MAIAC) (r² = 0.54 DF-49; r² = 0.63 SOA; p < 0.00). By implementing a simple hillshade model derived from airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to approximate canopy shadow fractions (α_s), it is further demonstrated that the differences observed in the relationship between PRI and ε at DF-49 and SOA can be attributed largely to differences in α_s. The findings of this study suggest that algorithms used to separate physiological from extraneous effects in PRI reflectance may be more broadly applicable and portable across these two climatically and structurally different biome types, when the differences in canopy structure are known.     

Dead-beat control of simple Hammerstein models

Dead-beat controllers for simple Hammerstein systems are investigated. Several designs for nonminimum-time state dead-beat controllers are given for certain classes of simple Hammerstein systems. A general minimum-time state dead-beat controller is presented for a class of simple Hammerstein systems. A design for a family of minimum-time control laws is provided. This enables, to a certain extent, shaping of transient response via choosing an appropriate control law. Finally, the authors design an output dead-beat controller for a class of Hammerstein systems that are not necessarily state dead-beat controllable     

Strong Lyapunov functions for systems satisfying the conditions of La salle

We present a construction of a (strong) Lyapunov function whose derivative is negative definite along the solutions of the system using another (weak) Lyapunov function whose derivative along the solutions of the system is negative semidefinite. The construction can be carried out if a Lie algebraic condition that involves the (weak) Lyapunov function and the system vector field is satisfied. Our main result extends to general nonlinear systems the strong Lyapunov function construction presented in a previous paper that was valid only for homogeneous systems.     

A Unified Framework for Design and Analysis of Networked and Quantized Control Systems

We generalize and unify a range of recent results in quantized control systems (QCS) and networked control systems (NCS) literature and provide a unified framework for controller design for control systems with quantization and time scheduling via an emulation-like approach. A crucial step in our proofs is finding an appropriate Lyapunov function for the quantization/time-scheduling protocol which verifies its uniform global exponential stability (UGES). We construct Lyapunov functions for several representative protocols that are commonly found in the literature, as well as some new protocols not considered previously. Our approach is flexible and amenable to further extensions which are briefly discussed.     

Power characterizations of input-to-state stability and integralinput-to-state stability

New notions of external stability for nonlinear systems are introduced, making use of average powers as signal norms and comparison functions as in the input-to-state stability (ISS) framework. Several new characterizations of ISS and integral ISS are presented in terms of the new notions. An example is discussed to illustrate differences and similarities of the newly introduced properties     

A note on input-to-state stabilization for nonlinear sampled-datasystems

We provide a framework for the design of L_∞ stabilizing controllers via approximate discrete-time models for sampled-data nonlinear systems with disturbances. In particular, we present sufficient conditions under which a discrete-time controller that input-to-state stabilizes an approximate discrete-time model of a nonlinear plant with disturbances would also input-to-state stabilize (in an appropriate sense) the exact discrete-time plant model     

A NEW,AUTOMATED, MULTIANGULAR RADIOMETER INSTRUMENT FOR TOWER-BASED OBSERVATIONS OF CANOPY REFLECTANCE (AMSPEC II)

Plant photosynthesis is critical for understanding carbon cycling at landscape and global scales. While tower-based measurements of CO₂ have enhanced our knowledge of ecosystem fluxes, scaling these measurements globally is difficult. Satellite observations provide full, global coverage and hold the potential of spatially continuous measurements of ecosystem fluxes, but the requirements for modeling these fluxes from satellite-derived surface parameters are not well understood. This article describes the further development of a tower-mounted, automated, multiangular spectroradiometer system (AMSPEC II) used to study the relationships between canopy-reflectance and plant-physiological processes from multiangular observations, thereby facilitating a comprehensive modeling of the bidirectional reflectance distribution of the canopy. A Webcam permits simultaneous monitoring of phenological changes over time.