This report is comprised of two studies. The first study focuses on plant canopies in pinyon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine woodland, and waste sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory which involved five basic areas of research: (1) application of hemispherical photography and other gap fraction techniques to study solar radiation regimes and canopy architecture, coupled with application of time-domain reflectometry to study soil moisture; (2) detailed characterization of canopy architecture using stand mapping and allometry; (3) development of an integrated geographical information system (GIS) database for relating canopy architecture with ecological, hydrological, and system modeling approaches; (4) development of geometric models that simulate complex sky obstruction, incoming solar radiation for complex topographic surfaces, and the coupling of incoming solar radiation with energy and water balance, with simulations of incoming solar radiation for selected native vegetation and experimental waste cover design sites; and (5) evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the various field sampling techniques. The second study describes an approach to develop software that takes advantage of new generation computers to model insolation on complex topographic surfaces. SOLARFLUX is a GIS-based (ARC/INFO, GRID) computer program that models incoming solar radiation based on surface orientation (slope and aspect), solar angle (azimuth and zenith) as it shifts over time, shadows caused by topographic features, and atmospheric conditions. This manual serves as the comprehensive guide to SOLARFLUX. Included are discussions on modelling insolation on complex surfaces, the theoretical approach, program setup and operation, and a set of applications illustrating characteristics of topographic insolation modelling.

This report is comprised of two studies. The first study focuses on plant canopies in pinyon-juniper woodland, ponderosa pine woodland, and waste sites at Los Alamos National Laboratory which involved five basic areas of research: (1) application of hemispherical photography and other gap fraction techniques to study solar radiation regimes and canopy architecture, coupled with application of time-domain reflectometry to study soil moisture; (2) detailed characterization of canopy architecture using stand mapping and allometry; (3) development of an integrated geographical information system (GIS) database for relating canopy architecture with ecological, hydrological, and system modeling approaches; (4) development of geometric models that simulate complex sky obstruction, incoming solar radiation for complex topographic surfaces, and the coupling of incoming solar radiation with energy and water balance, with simulations of incoming solar radiation for selected native vegetation and experimental waste cover design sites; and (5) evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the various field sampling techniques. The second study describes an approach to develop software that takes advantage of new generation computers to model insolation on complex topographic surfaces. SOLARFLUX is a GIS-based (ARC/INFO, GRID) computer program that models incoming solar radiation based on surface orientation (slope and aspect), solar angle (azimuth and zenith) as it shifts over time, shadows caused by topographic features, and atmospheric conditions. This manual serves as the comprehensive guide to SOLARFLUX. Included are discussions on modelling insolation on complex surfaces, the theoretical approach, program setup and operation, and a set of applications illustrating characteristics of topographic insolation modelling.

Stochastic and deterministic approaches to simulating the spectro reflectance of shortgrass prairie vegetation have been investigated. The stochastic approach uses randomly selected variates for incoming light flux, plant geometry, and intrinsic optical properties whereas the deterministic model is patterned after the familiar Kubelka-Munk theory for diffuse reflectance. The model results are compared with field and laboratory measurements of Blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and successfully predicts the non-Lambertian character of the canopy. The site of the field measurements was the Pawnee National Grasslands, the intensive study site of the International Biological Program. Direct solar and diffuse sky irradiance and the optical properties of Blue grama were measured in the 0.4 micrometer to 1.05 micrometers region of the spectrum using a field adapted EG and G spectroradiometer with a computer based digital acquisition system. Canopy geometry was measured with a laboratory photographic technique with subsequent digitization of the profile images. (Modified author abstract).