Reanalysis of global terrestrial vegetation trends from MODIS products: Browning or greening?

Public Deposited
Analytics

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Request Version for Screen Reader
Creator
  • Zhang, Yulong
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
    • Other Affiliation: UNC Institute for the Environment
  • Song, Conghe
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
    • Other Affiliation: UNC Institute for the Environment
  • Band, Lawrence E.
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
    • Other Affiliation: UNC Institute for the Environment
  • Sun, Ge
    • Other Affiliation: Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center; Southern Research Station; USDA Forest Service
  • Li, Junxiang
    • Other Affiliation: School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences; East China Normal University
Abstract
  • Accurately monitoring global vegetation dynamics with modern remote sensing is critical for understanding the functions and processes of the biosphere and its interactions with the planetary climate. The MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index (VI) product has been a primary data source for this purpose. To date, the MODIS team had released several versions of VI products that have widely used in global change studies and practical applications. In this study, we re-examined the global vegetation activity by comparing the recent MODIS Collection 6 (C6) VIs with Collection 5 (C5) VIs including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from Terra (2001â2015) and Aqua Satellites (2003â2015). We found substantial differences in global vegetation trends betweenTerra-C5 and -C6 VIs, especially EVI. From 2001 to 2015, global vegetation showed a remarkable greening trend in annual EVI from the Terra-C6 (0.28% yearâ1; P<0.001), in contrast to the decreasing EVI trend from the Terra-C5 (â0.14% yearâ1, P<0.01). Spatially, large portions of the browning areas in tropical regions identified by Terra-C5 VIs were not evident in Terra-C6 VIs. In contrast, the widespread greening areas in Terra-C6 VIs were consistent with Aqua-C6 VIs and GIMMS3g NDVI. Our finding of a greening Earth supports the recent studies suggesting an enhanced land carbon sink. Our study suggests that most of the vegetat
Date of publication
Keyword
DOI
Identifier
Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Journal title
  • Remote Sensing of Environment
Journal volume
  • 191
Page start
  • 145
Page end
  • 155
Language
  • English
ISSN
  • 0034-4257
  • 1879-0704

Relations

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details Reanalysis_of_global_terrestrial_vegetation_trends_from_MODIS.pdf 2017 Public Download