RETRIEVAL OF GEO- AND BIOPHYSICAL INFORMATION FROM REMOTE SENSING DATA – OVERVIEW OF THE GEOBIRD STUDY Bach, H. (1) , Borgeaud, M. (2) , Häme, T. (3) , van Leeuwen, H. (4) , Manninen, T. (3) , Mauser, W. (5) , Schneider, K. (1) , Schouten, L. (4) , Stolz, R. (5) , Verhoef, W. (6) (1) VISTA Luisenstr.45, 80333 München, Germany Tel. +49-89-52389802, Fax +49-89-52389804 Email: bach@vista-geo.de (2) European Space Agency ESTEC-TOS-EEP, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands Tel. +31 71 565 4830, Fax +31 71 565 4999 email: maurice@xe.estec.es.nl (3)VTT Automation, Remote Sensing P.O. Box, 1304, FIN-02044 VTT, Finland Tel. +358-9-4566285, Fax +358-9-4566475 Email: Terhikki.Manninen@vtt.fi, Tuomas.Hame@vtt.fi (4) SYNOPTICS Integrated Remote Sensing & GIS Applications BV P.O.Box 117, 6700 AC WAGENINGEN Tel: +31 317 421221, Fax: +31 317 416146 e-mail: main@synoptics.nl (5) Institute for Geography, University of Munich Luisenstr.37, D-80333 Munich, Germany Tel. +49 89 2180 6676 , Fax +49 89 2180 6675 Email: w.mauser@iggf.geo.uni-muenchen.de, r.stolz@iggf.geo.uni-muenchen.de (6) NLR, Remote Sensing Dept. P.O. Box 153, 8300 AD Emmeloord, The Netherlands Tel. +31-527-248253, Fax +31-527-248210 Email: Verhoef@nlr.nl 1 INTRODUCTION An overview of the project called GeoBIRD (The retrieval of Geo- and Bio-physical Information from Remote Sensing Data) conducted under ESA contract is presented here. The goal of GeoBIRD was the improved retrieval of bio- geophysical parameters from multisensoral remote sensing (RS) data using ERS-SAR and optical sensors (TM, SPOT). This was achieved through a combined application of the plant physiological growth model PROMET-V, which simulates vegetation growth and water balance from environmental information, and remote sensing radiative transfer models (CLOUD and empirical models for SAR data; GeoSAIL and FLIM for optical data), which simulate sensor response from surface properties. For a variety of agricultural and forest test sites in Europe the applicability of the methodology was proven. In the agricultural sites the land use classes wheat, barley, maize and grassland were investigated. The agricultural test sites were situated in South Germany and Holland. For forest applications boreal, temperate and Mediterranean forests were selected.