Africa fAPAR Anomaly: Vegetation Health and Biomass Maps

The African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development provides GEOTIFF spatial data mapping vegetation health deviations across the African continent, with updates recorded through March 2026. The data measures the Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR) to identify areas where photosynthetic activity differs from long-term averages.

Use Cases

• Drought monitoring by identifying negative fAPAR anomaly values in specific regions
• Agricultural yield forecasting using biomass availability as a proxy for crop production
• Food security analysis by mapping vegetation stress caused by pests or disease

Strengths

• GEOTIFF format allows for immediate spatial analysis in GIS tools
• Uses fAPAR biophysical indicators physically related to canopy energy exchange
• Authored by the African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development

Limitations

• Geographic coverage is restricted to the African continent
• Specific spatial resolution in meters or degrees is not defined in the metadata
• Absence of tabular attribute documentation or column headers

Provenance

Source

African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development

Collection Method

Satellite-derived sensor data

Freshness

Updated as of March 2026 according to source metadata.

Geography

Africa