ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how incident solar radiation interacts with different materials on Earth’s surface. It presents the interaction of solar radiation with a plant canopy. The vertical and horizontal distribution of light within a vegetation canopy is also an important ecological factor, which has significant implications for the strategies adopted by plants in terms of their competition for the available light resource. In contrast, other species may become adapted to life at the base of the canopy, where the level of available light is generally greatly reduced, but much less effort has to be put into the production of woody biomass. They may also be able to take advantage of light that penetrates through gaps in the crown of the canopy, which produces “sun flecks” at its base. Develop a revised version of the simple light-interaction model that simulates the spectral reflectance of an area of ground covered by a mixture of three surface materials.
