Peiqi Yang | Research Profile

Peiqi Yang, Professor

Email: p.yang@njnu.edu.cn; peiqiyangweb@gmail.com

Peiqi Yang’s research centers on quantitative remote sensing, with a focus on radiative transfer modeling and the remote sensing of photosynthesis using solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) and the photochemical reflectance index (PRI). His work spans canopy radiation physics, vegetation structure–function relationships, and soil–vegetation–atmosphere energy–carbon coupling. He is a recipient of the National High-level Young Talent Program, Jiangsu Distinguished Professor, and NNU Outstanding Young Scholar. Yang has developed several influential modeling frameworks, including unified canopy radiative transfer theory and the SPART, mSCOPE, and SCOPE2.0 models. He has also advanced physically based methods for interpreting SIF and PRI to better quantify plant physiological status and ecosystem photosynthetic function. His research contributes to improving the physical foundations and retrieval capability of next-generation vegetation remote sensing.

Work and Education Experience

2021 – Present: Professor, School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University
2018 – 2021: Researcher, ITC, University of Twente
2014 – 2018: Ph.D., University of Twente
2011 – 2014: M.Sc., Beijing Normal University
2007 – 2011: B.Eng., Wuhan University

Publications

21. Han, D., Liu, J., Xu, S., Yin, T., Liu, S., Zhang, R., Yang, P. (2026). Estimation of canopy fAPAR using optical reflectance and airborne LiDAR data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 332, 115065.

20. Yang, P.*, Liu, Z., Han, D., Zhang, R., Siegmann, B., Liu, J., Zhao, H., Rascher, U., Chen, J., van der Tol, C. (2025). Mitigating the black-soil problem in the reflectance-to-fluorescence (R2F) relationship: A soil-adjusted reflectance-based approach for downscaling SIF. Remote Sensing of Environment, 330, 114998.

19. Yang, P.*, Verhoef, W., Fang, H., Fan, W., van der Tol, C. (2025). Linking Kubelka–Munk and recollision probability theories for radiative transfer simulations in turbid canopies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 321, 114680.

18. Yang, P.*, van der Tol, C., Liu, J., Liu, Z. (2025). Separation of the direct reflection of soil from canopy spectral reflectance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 316, 114500.

17. Shi, S., Yang, P.*, Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Vegetation optimal temperature modulates global vegetation season onset shifts in response to warming climate. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), 203.

16. Zhang, R., Yang, P.*, Xu, S., Li, L., Guo, T., Han, D., Liu, J. (2025). The relationship between the ratio of far-red to red leaf SIF and leaf chlorophyll content: theoretical derivation and experimental validation. Remote Sensing of Environment, 324, 114762.

15. Shi, S., Yang, P.*, Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Opposite effects of temperature and precipitation on vegetation growth onset in Africa. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 371, 110604.

14. Lu, X., Yang, P., Mac Arthur, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Using reflectance to reduce solar angle effects on the scattering of far-red solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence to better track the diurnal dynamics of gross primary productivity. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 373, 110794.

13. Yang, P.* (2024). Downscaling canopy photochemical reflectance index to leaf level by correcting for the soil effects. Remote Sensing of Environment, 311, 114250.

12. Yang, P.*, Liu, X., Liu, Z., van der Tol, C., Liu, L. (2023). The roles of radiative, structural and physiological information of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence in predicting gross primary production of a corn crop at various temporal scales. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 342, 109720.

11. Shi, S., Yang, P.*, Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2023). Spatial-temporal dynamics of land surface phenology over Africa for the period of 1982–2015. Heliyon, 9(6).

10. Yang, P.* (2022). Exploring the interrelated effects of soil background, canopy structure and sun-observer geometry on canopy photochemical reflectance index. Remote Sensing of Environment, 279, 113133.

9. Yang, P., Prikaziuk, E., Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C.* (2021). SCOPE 2.0: A model to simulate vegetated land surface fluxes and satellite signals. Geoscientific Model Development, 14(7), 4697–4712.

8. Yang, P.*, Verhoef, W., Prikaziuk, E., van der Tol, C. (2021). Improved retrieval of land surface biophysical variables from time series of Sentinel-3 OLCI TOA spectral observations by considering the temporal autocorrelation of surface and atmospheric properties. Remote Sensing of Environment, 256, 112328.

7. Yang, P.*, van der Tol, C., Campbell, P. K. E., Middleton, E. M. (2020). Fluorescence Correction Vegetation Index (FCVI): A physically based reflectance index to separate physiological and non-physiological information in far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Remote Sensing of Environment, 240, 111676.

6. Yang, P.*, Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2020). Unified four-stream radiative transfer theory in the optical-thermal domain with consideration of fluorescence for multi-layer vegetation canopies. Remote Sensing, 12(23), 3914.

5. Yang, P.*, van der Tol, C., Verhoef, W., Damm, A., Schickling, A., Kraska, T., Muller, O., Rascher, U. (2019). Using reflectance to explain vegetation biochemical and structural effects on sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Remote Sensing of Environment, 231, 110996.

4. Yang, P.* (2019). Interpretation of Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence for Remote Sensing of Photosynthesis. University of Twente.

3. Yang, P.*, van der Tol, C. (2018). Linking canopy scattering of far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence with reflectance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 209, 456–467.

2. Yang, P.*, Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2018). A spectral invariant approach to modelling radiative transfer of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. IGARSS 2018 - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1711–1714.

1. Yang, P.*, Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2017). The mSCOPE model: A simple adaptation to the SCOPE model to describe reflectance, fluorescence and photosynthesis of vertically heterogeneous canopies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 201.

2026. Han, D., Liu, J., Xu, S., Yin, T., Liu, S., Zhang, R., Yang, P. (2026). Estimation of canopy fAPAR using optical reflectance and airborne LiDAR data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 332, 115065.

2025. Wang, J., Liu, Z., Jiang, H., Yang, P., Xu, S., Guo, T., Zhang, R., Han, D., Zhao, H. (2025). Integrating diurnal physiological and structural variations in SIF for enhanced daily drought detection in maize. Remote Sensing, 17(4), 565.

2025. Li, W., Li, D., Warner, T. A., Liu, S., Baret, F., Yang, P., Jiang, J., Dong, M., Cheng, T., Zhu, Y. (2025). Improved generality of wheat green LAI models through mitigation of the effect of leaf chlorophyll content variation with red edge vegetation indices. Remote Sensing of Environment, 318, 114589.

2025. Yang, P., Verhoef, W., Fang, H., Fan, W., van der Tol, C. (2025). Linking Kubelka-Munk and recollision probability theories for radiative transfer simulations in turbid canopy. Remote Sensing of Environment, 321, 114680.

2025. Yang, P., Liu, Z., Han, D., Zhang, R., Siegmann, B., Liu, J., Zhao, H., Rascher, U., Chen, J. M., van der Tol, C. (2025). Mitigating the black-soil problem in the reflectance-to-fluorescence (R2F) relationship: A soil-adjusted reflectance-based approach for downscaling SIF. Remote Sensing of Environment, 330, 114998.

2025. Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Liu, J., Liu, Z. (2025). Separation of the direct reflection of soil from canopy spectral reflectance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 316, 114500.

2025. Zhou, Z., Jin, J., Yong, B., Huang, W., Yu, L., Yang, P., Sun, D. (2025). Enhanced NDVI prediction accuracy in complex geographic regions by integrating machine learning and climate data—a case study of Southwest basin. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 139, 104498.

2025. Zhang, R., Yang, P., Xu, S., Li, L., Guo, T., Han, D., Liu, J. (2025). The relationship between the ratio of far-red to red leaf SIF and leaf chlorophyll content: theoretical derivation and experimental validation. Remote Sensing of Environment, 324, 114762.

2025. Shi, S., Yang, P., Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Opposite effects of temperature and precipitation on vegetation growth onset in Africa. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 371, 110604.

2025. Lu, X., Yang, P., Mac Arthur, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Using reflectance to reduce solar angle effects on the scattering of far-red solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence to better track the diurnal dynamics of gross primary productivity. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 373, 110794.

2025. Shi, S., Yang, P., Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2025). Vegetation optimal temperature modulates global vegetation season onset shifts in response to warming climate. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), 203.

2024. Yang, P. (2024). Downscaling canopy photochemical reflectance index to leaf level by correcting for the soil effects. Remote Sensing of Environment, 311, 114250.

2023. Jiang, H., Liu, Z., Wang, J., Yang, P., Zhang, R., Zhang, X., Zheng, P. (2023). Combining chlorophyll fluorescence and vegetation reflectance indices to estimate non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) of rice at the leaf scale. Remote Sensing, 15(17), 4222.

2023. van der Tol, C., Julitta, T., Yang, P., Sabater, N., Reiter, I., Tudoroiu, M., Schuettemeyer, D., Drusch, M. (2023). Retrieval of chlorophyll fluorescence from a large distance using oxygen absorption bands. Remote Sensing of Environment, 284, 113304.

2023. Yang, P., Liu, X., Liu, Z., van der Tol, C., Liu, L. (2023). The roles of radiative, structural and physiological information of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence in predicting gross primary production of a corn crop at various temporal scales. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 342, 109720.

2023. Shi, S., Yang, P., Vrieling, A., van der Tol, C. (2023). Spatial-temporal dynamics of land surface phenology over Africa for the period of 1982–2015. Heliyon, 9(6).

2023. Han, D., Liu, J., Zhang, R., Liu, Z., Guo, T., Jiang, H., Wang, J., Zhao, H., Ren, S., Yang, P. (2023). Evaluation of the SAIL radiative transfer model for simulating canopy reflectance of row crop canopies. Remote Sensing, 15(23), 5433.

2023. Liu, Z., He, X., Yang, P., Jiang, H., Xu, S., Zhao, H., Ren, S., Chen, M. (2023). Diurnal pattern of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence as reliable indicators of crop water stress. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 20, 1–5.

2022. Yang, P. (2022). Exploring the interrelated effects of soil background, canopy structure and sun-observer geometry on canopy photochemical reflectance index. Remote Sensing of Environment, 279, 113133.

2022. Rastogi, A., Antala, M., Prikaziuk, E., Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Juszczak, R. (2022). Exploring the potential of SCOPE model for detection of leaf area index and sun-induced fluorescence of peatland canopy. Remote Sensing, 14(16), 4010.

2022. Zhang, R., Yang, P., Liu, S., Wang, C., Liu, J. (2022). Evaluation of the methods for estimating leaf chlorophyll content with SPAD chlorophyll meters. Remote Sensing, 14(20), 5144.

2021. Yang, P., Prikaziuk, E., Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2021). SCOPE 2.0: A model to simulate vegetated land surface fluxes and satellite signals. Geoscientific Model Development, 14(7), 4697–4712.

2021. Malenovský, Z., Regaieg, O., Yin, T., Lauret, N., Guilleux, J., Chavanon, E., Duran, N., Janoutová, R., Delavois, A., Meynier, J., Yang, P., van der Tol, C. (2021). Discrete anisotropic radiative transfer modelling of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence: Structural impacts in geometrically explicit vegetation canopies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 263, 112564.

2021. Yang, P., Verhoef, W., Prikaziuk, E., van der Tol, C. (2021). Improved retrieval of land surface biophysical variables from time series of Sentinel-3 OLCI TOA spectral observations by considering the temporal autocorrelation of surface and atmospheric properties. Remote Sensing of Environment, 256, 112328.

2021. Campbell, P., Middleton, E., Huemmrich, K., Ward, L., Julitta, T., Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Daughtry, C., Russ, A., Alfieri, J. (2021). Scaling photosynthetic function and CO₂ dynamics from leaf to canopy level for maize – dataset combining diurnal and seasonal measurements of vegetation fluorescence, reflectance and vegetation indices with canopy gross ecosystem productivity. Data in Brief, 39, 107600.

2021. Prikaziuk, E., Yang, P., van der Tol, C. (2021). Google earth engine sentinel-3 OLCI level-1 dataset deviates from the original data: Causes and consequences. Remote Sensing, 13(6), 1098.

2021. Wang, Y., Zeng, Y., Yu, L., Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Yu, Q., Lü, X., Cai, H., Su, Z. (2021). Integrated modeling of canopy photosynthesis, fluorescence, and the transfer of energy, mass, and momentum in the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum (STEMMUS–SCOPE v1.0.0). Geoscientific Model Development, 14(3), 1379–1407.

2021. Yang, P., Tol, C. van der, Campbell, P. E., Middleton, E. M. (2021). Unraveling the physical and physiological basis for the solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthesis relationship using continuous leaf and canopy measurements of a corn crop. Biogeosciences, EGU Abstract.

2021. Siegmann, B., Cendrero-Mateo, M. P., Cogliati, S., Damm, A., Gamon, J., Herrera, D., Junker-Frohn, L. V., Kraska, T., Muller, O., Yang, P. (2021). Downscaling of far-red solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence of different crops from canopy to leaf level using a diurnal data set acquired by the airborne imaging spectrometer HyPlant. Remote Sensing of Environment, 264, 112609.

2020. Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Campbell, P. K. E., Middleton, E. M. (2020). Fluorescence Correction Vegetation Index (FCVI): A physically based reflectance index to separate physiological and non-physiological information in far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Remote Sensing of Environment, 240, 111676.

2020. Yang, P., Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2020). Unified four-stream radiative transfer theory in the optical-thermal domain with consideration of fluorescence for multi-layer vegetation canopies. Remote Sensing, 12(23), 3914.

2020. Joiner, J., Yoshida, Y., Köehler, P., Campbell, P., Frankenberg, C., van der Tol, C., Yang, P., Parazoo, N., Guanter, L., Sun, Y. (2020). Systematic orbital geometry-dependent variations in satellite solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) retrievals. Remote Sensing, 12(15), 2346.

2020. Wang, Y., Zeng, Y., Yu, L., Yang, P., Van de Tol, C., Cai, H., Su, Z. (2020). Integrated modeling of photosynthesis and transfer of energy, mass and momentum in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum system. Geoscientific Model Development Discussions, 1–37.

2019. Yang, P., van der Tol, C., Verhoef, W., Damm, A., Schickling, A., Kraska, T., Muller, O., Rascher, U. (2019). Using reflectance to explain vegetation biochemical and structural effects on sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Remote Sensing of Environment, 231, 110996.

2019. van der Tol, C., Vilfan, N., Dauwe, D., Cendrero-Mateo, M. P., Yang, P. (2019). The scattering and re-absorption of red and near-infrared chlorophyll fluorescence in the models Fluspect and SCOPE. Remote Sensing of Environment, 232, 111292.

2019. Martini, D., Pacheco-Labrador, J., Perez-Priego, O., Van der Tol, C., El-Madany, T. S., Julitta, T., Rossini, M., Reichstein, M., Christiansen, R., Rascher, U., Yang, P. (2019). Nitrogen and phosphorus effect on sun-induced fluorescence and gross primary productivity in Mediterranean grassland. Remote Sensing, 11(21), 2562.

2019. Yang, P. (2019). Interpretation of Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence for Remote Sensing of Photosynthesis. University of Twente.

2018. Yang, P., van der Tol, C. (2018). A spectral invariant approach to modelling radiative transfer of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. IGARSS 2018 - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1711–1714.

2018. van der Tol, C., Vilfan, N., Yang, P., Bayat, B., Verhoef, W. (2018). Modeling reflectance, fluorescence and photosynthesis: development of the SCOPE model. IGARSS 2018 - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 5968–5971.

2018. Celesti, M., van der Tol, C., Cogliati, S., Panigada, C., Yang, P., Pinto, F., Rascher, U., Miglietta, F., Colombo, R., Rossini, M. (2018). Exploring continuous time series of vegetation hyperspectral reflectance and solar-induced fluorescence through radiative transfer model inversion. EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, 14904.

2018. Yang, P., van der Tol, C. (2018). Linking canopy scattering of far-red sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence with reflectance. Remote Sensing of Environment, 209, 456–467.

2018. Vilfan, N., van der Tal, C., Yang, P., Verhoef, W. (2018). Retrieving Photosynthetic Capacity Parameter from Leaf Photochemical Reflectance and Chlorophyll Fluorescence. IGARSS 2018 - IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 5991–5994.

2017. Yang, P., Verhoef, W., van der Tol, C. (2017). The mSCOPE model: A simple adaptation to the SCOPE model to describe reflectance, fluorescence and photosynthesis of vertically heterogeneous canopies. Remote Sensing of Environment, 201.

2016. Ni, Z., Liu, Z., Li, Z.-L., Nerry, F., Huo, H., Sun, R., Yang, P., Zhang, W. (2016). Investigation of atmospheric effects on retrieval of sun-induced fluorescence using hyperspectral imagery. Sensors, 16(4), 480.

2015. Yang, P., et al. (2015). Evaluating canopy reflectance models with hyperspectral data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 53(12), 6542–6556.

2014. Yang, P., et al. (2014). Comparing SCOPE and FLUX models for ecosystem photosynthesis estimation. Biogeosciences, 11, 4413–4427.

2013. Yang, P., Liu, Z. (2013). Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence from an unmanned airship platform. 2013 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2786–2789.

2013. Yang, P., Liu, Z., Ni, Z., Wang, R., Wang, Q. (2013). Remote sensing of chlorophyll fluorescence at airborne level based on unmanned airship platform and hyperspectral sensor. Spectroscopy and Spectral Analysis, 33(11), 3101–3105.

2012. Wang, R., Liu, Z., Yang, P. (2012). Principle and progress in remote sensing of vegetation solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Advances in Earth Science, 27(11), 1221.

Patents & Software

Passive-active long-term chlorophyll fluorescence observation system, CN201410220579.2
LiDAR waveform-based plantation forest detection, CN119649227A
LiDAR-based LAI retrieval in mountainous forests, CN119741597A

Honors for Students Supervised

2024 Hyperspectral RS Competition — Vegetation Group (1st)
2024 Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, Jiangsu Province
2023 Su–HK–Macao Remote Sensing Competition — First Prize

Professional Service

Associate Editor, Information Geography
Editorial Board Member, Remote Sensing
Young Editorial Board Member, Journal of Remote Sensing
Committee Member, CSNR Cartography Committee

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