First-of-its-kind fluorescence map offers a new view of the world's land plants
Monday, June 6, 2011 - 16:30
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have produced groundbreaking global maps of land plant fluorescence, a difficult-to-detect reddish glow that leaves emit as a byproduct of photosynthesis. While researchers have previously mapped how ocean-dwelling phytoplankton fluoresce, the new maps are the first to focus on land vegetation and to cover the entire globe.