Global Sensitivity Analysis Of The A-Scope Model In Support Of Future Flex Fluorescence Retrievals

In support of ESA's Earth Explorer 8 candidate mission FLEX (FLuorescence EXplorer), a Photosynthesis Study has been initiated to quantitatively link fluorescence to photosynthesis. This led to the development of A-SCOPE, a graphical user interface software package that integrates multiple biochemical models into the soil-vegetation atmosphere-transfer model SCOPE. Its latest version (v1.53) has been successfully verified and was subsequently evaluated through a global sensitivity analysis. By using the method of Saltelli [4], the relative importance of each input variable to model outputs was quantified through first order and total effect sensitivity indices. Variations in leaf area index (LAI) and chlorophyll content are mostly impacting the reflectance and fluorescence signal. Non-driving variables that can be safely set to default values have been identified and will facilitate consolidating SCOPE into an operational and invertible model.