The enhanced NOAA global land dataset from the advanced very high resolution radiometer

Journal Article · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1995)076<1141:TENGLD>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:115195

Gutman, G; Tarpley, D; Ignatov, A ^[1]

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1. Satellite Research Lab., Washington, DC (United States); and others

Global mapped data of reflected radiation in the visible (0.63 {mu}m) and near-infrared (0.85 {mu}m) wavebands on the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites have been collected as the global vegetation index (GVI) dataset since 1982. Its primary objective has been vegetation studies (hence its title) using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from the visible and near-IR data. The second-generation GVI, which started in April 1985, has also included brightness temperatures in the thermal IR (11 and 12 {mu}m) and the associated observation-illumination geometry. This multiyear, multispectral, multisatellite dataset is a unique tool for global land studies. At the same time, it raises challenging remote sensing and data management problems with respect to uniformity in time, enhancement of signal-to-noise ratio, retrieval of geophysical parameters from satellite radiances, and large data volumes. The authors explored a four-level generic structure for processing AVHRR data-the first two levels being remote sensing oriented and the other two directed at environmental studies-and will describe the present status of each level. The uniformity of GVI data was improved by applying an updated calibration, and noise was reduced by applying a more accurate cloud-screening procedure. In addition to the enhanced weekly data (recalibrated with appended quality/cloud flags), the available land environmental products include monthly 0-15{degrees}-resolution global maps of top-of-the-atmosphere visible and near-IR reflectances, NDVI, brightness temperatures, and a precipitable water index for April 1985-September 1994. For the first time, a 5-yr monthly climatology (means and standard deviations) of each quantity was produced. These products show strong potential for detecting and analyzing large-scale spatial and seasonal land variability. 57 refs., 8 figs.

• OSTI ID: 115195
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 76; ISSN 0003-0007; ISSN BAMIAT
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOSPHERE
GLOBAL ANALYSIS
LAND USE
MAPS
PLANTS
RADIOMETRIC SURVEYS
REMOTE SENSING
RESOLUTION
SATELLITES