A user perspective on VIIRS Land Vegetation Products

Jennifer Dungan, NASA Ames Research Center, jennifer.l.dungan@nasa.gov (Presenter)
Forrest Melton, NASA ARC/CSUMB, fmelton@csumb.edu
John Shupe, NASA ARC/CSUMB, john.w.shupe@nasa.gov
Sangram Ganguly, NASA ARC BAERI, sangramganguly@gmail.com

The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Program (NPP) satellite was launched in October, 2011, originally as a preparatory mission for a series of operational satellites. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor onboard was designed as a follow-on to the MODIS sensor on the Terra and Aqua satellites. Information on land vegetation from VIIRS can complement and eventually supplant MODIS after MODIS reaches its end. Currently, there are multiple options available for a user to obtain VIIRS vegetation products. Though vigorous efforts to test the performance of new and MODIS-derived algorithms for higher level land vegetation products from VIIRS continue, users now have access to Collection 1.1 of spectral vegetation indices, in particular a global 16-day, 500m resolution top-of-canopy Enhanced Vegetation Index. A workflow for obtaining and analyzing this type of product is reported. Time series of VIIRS EVI data tell a story of the historic drought in California through its expression in surface vegetation. Spatial patterns of green-up are very similar to those derived from concurrent Aqua MODIS data and show phenological anomalies driven by the dearth of winter rains. These anomalies are highlighted when placed in the context of the longer MODIS record.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 3: Future research direction and priorities: perspectives relevant to the next decadal survey   (Mon 4:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Nemani, Rama: Extending the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS) to NPP Applications ...details

Poster Location ID: 197