Credit: Image courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The biochemistry of photosynthesis in plants produces a faint red glow, a process called solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF). This light can be detected from space by satellites and indicates global patterns of photosynthesis. The team used SIF data to evaluate alternative methods to model the properties of photosynthetic biochemistry across the planet. This NASA image is a visualization of SIF data showing global land plant fluorescence in the northern hemisphere summer. Darker reds show areas with low fluorescence; lighter reds and pinks display areas of high fluorescence. Note the high values in the agricultural American mid-west.