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Biomass and Leaf Area Index (LAI) are two important biophysical properties of vegetation as they inform about vegetation production. LAI is directly related to the exchange of energy and mass between plant canopies and the atmosphere (Fassnacht et al., 1997), while biomass reflects the amount of carbon converted through photosynthesis and accumulated in the different plant components. Thus, the two variables reflect much of the potential and actual production of plant ecosystems (Kasischke et al., 2004). Fire is ubiquitous in most terrestrial ecosystems causing spatial patterning at many scales (Chapin III et al., 2003). In tropical savannas in general and, in the southern African savannas in particular, much of the ecosystem functioning is largely defined by the combination of climate, fires and herbivory. Andreae (1993) estimated that fires in the African and the world savannas account, respectively, for 22% and 42% of the biomass burned globally. Moreover, the amount of CO2 exchanged with the atmosphere in southern Africa may represent up to 20% of the regional net primary production (Scholes & Andreae, 2000). In spite of the elevated importance of disturbances in miombo woodlands, there still is a gap in the understanding of the interaction between them and vegetation. This, results partially from the short temporal and spatial scales of observation of much of the existing studies. For example, except for the long-term experimental study carried out in Zambia for 15 years (Trapnell, 1959), the other studies are all points in space and time, much of them lasted less than 5-years. Moreover, they address a specific aspect of miombo woodlands functioning, which is important but not sufficient for a complete understanding of this ecosystem. Thus, measurements of large spatialand temporal-scale variations of vegetation production, disturbances and their interaction are crucial to fulfill the existing data gaps. This is particularly important to understanding the role of this crucial ecosystem in the global carbon budget. Remote sensing of vegetation production and disturbances is a critical measurement needed to extend the field level understanding of ecological, hydrological and biogeochemical processes to broader spatial and temporal scales in terrestrial ecosystems (Asner, 2004) and the different scales of energy, CO2 and mass exchange between ecosystems and atmosphere

Remote Sensing of Biomass in the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa: Opportunities and Limitations for Research