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Title: Intercomparison of phenological transition dates derived from the PhenoCam Dataset V1.0 and MODIS satellite remote sensing

Abstract

Phenology is a valuable diagnostic of ecosystem health, and has applications to environmental monitoring and management. Here, we conduct an intercomparison analysis using phenological transition dates derived from near-surface PhenoCam imagery and MODIS satellite remote sensing. We used approximately 600 site-years of data, from 128 camera sites covering a wide range of vegetation types and climate zones. During both “greenness rising” and “greenness falling” transition phases, we found generally good agreement between PhenoCam and MODIS transition dates for agricultural, deciduous forest, and grassland sites, provided that the vegetation in the camera field of view was representative of the broader landscape. The correlation between PhenoCam and MODIS transition dates was poor for evergreen forest sites. We discuss potential reasons (including sub-pixel spatial heterogeneity, flexibility of the transition date extraction method, vegetation index sensitivity in evergreen systems, and PhenoCam geolocation uncertainty) for varying agreement between time series of vegetation indices derived from PhenoCam and MODIS imagery. This analysis increases our confidence in the ability of satellite remote sensing to accurately characterize seasonal dynamics in a range of ecosystems, and provides a basis for interpreting those dynamics in the context of tangible phenological changes occurring on the ground.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States). School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems. Center for Ecosystem Science and Society
  2. National Inst. of Agricultural Research (INRA), Villenave d’Ornon (France)
  3. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States). Earth Systems Research Center
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States); Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); National Inst. of Agricultural Research (INRA), Villenave d’Ornon (France)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); United States Geological Survey (USGS); National Research Agency (ANR) (France)
OSTI Identifier:
1499990
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0016011; EF-1065029; EF-1702697; G10AP00129; G16AC00224; ANR-10-LABX-45
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; ecological networks; phenology

Citation Formats

Richardson, Andrew D., Hufkens, Koen, Milliman, Tom, and Frolking, Steve. Intercomparison of phenological transition dates derived from the PhenoCam Dataset V1.0 and MODIS satellite remote sensing. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-23804-6.
Richardson, Andrew D., Hufkens, Koen, Milliman, Tom, & Frolking, Steve. Intercomparison of phenological transition dates derived from the PhenoCam Dataset V1.0 and MODIS satellite remote sensing. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23804-6
Richardson, Andrew D., Hufkens, Koen, Milliman, Tom, and Frolking, Steve. Mon . "Intercomparison of phenological transition dates derived from the PhenoCam Dataset V1.0 and MODIS satellite remote sensing". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23804-6. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1499990.
@article{osti_1499990,
title = {Intercomparison of phenological transition dates derived from the PhenoCam Dataset V1.0 and MODIS satellite remote sensing},
author = {Richardson, Andrew D. and Hufkens, Koen and Milliman, Tom and Frolking, Steve},
abstractNote = {Phenology is a valuable diagnostic of ecosystem health, and has applications to environmental monitoring and management. Here, we conduct an intercomparison analysis using phenological transition dates derived from near-surface PhenoCam imagery and MODIS satellite remote sensing. We used approximately 600 site-years of data, from 128 camera sites covering a wide range of vegetation types and climate zones. During both “greenness rising” and “greenness falling” transition phases, we found generally good agreement between PhenoCam and MODIS transition dates for agricultural, deciduous forest, and grassland sites, provided that the vegetation in the camera field of view was representative of the broader landscape. The correlation between PhenoCam and MODIS transition dates was poor for evergreen forest sites. We discuss potential reasons (including sub-pixel spatial heterogeneity, flexibility of the transition date extraction method, vegetation index sensitivity in evergreen systems, and PhenoCam geolocation uncertainty) for varying agreement between time series of vegetation indices derived from PhenoCam and MODIS imagery. This analysis increases our confidence in the ability of satellite remote sensing to accurately characterize seasonal dynamics in a range of ecosystems, and provides a basis for interpreting those dynamics in the context of tangible phenological changes occurring on the ground.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-23804-6},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = ,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {4}
}

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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1. Figure 1.: Climate space spanned by the 128 camera sites included in this analysis. Mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation are from the WorldClim database. Symbols are colored according to a simplified IGBP land cover classification (Forest = IGBP 1, 2, 4, 5; Grassland and cropland = IGBP 10,more » 12, 14; Savanna = IGBP 8, 9; Shrubland = IGBP 7; Urban = IGBP 13).« less

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