RELEVANCE OF GLOBAL REMOTE-SENSING FAPAR PRODUCTS TO CARBON FLUX ESTIMATES

This contribution gives an overview of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) global land product corresponding to the biophysical variable of the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR). This product can be used in large- scale biosphere modeling for better estimating the carbon fluxes since they directly represent the amount of solar energy which serves as a 'battery' during the photosynthetic process. The daily FAPAR value is operationally estimated from MERIS data 1 and the (demonstration) global products, recently produced at European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) by the grid on demand system 2 , are first compared against the Joint Research Centre (JRC) SeaWiFS global datasets which is