Costa Rica Subnational NDVI: Dekadal Vegetation Indices and Anomalies

Satellite-derived vegetation indicators for Costa Rica are provided at the sub-national level using NASA MODIS collection 6.1 data from Aqua and Terra sensors. Produced by the World Food Programme (WFP), the dataset tracks 10-day NDVI, long-term averages, and anomalies across administrative units. The records are structured for humanitarian monitoring and include pixel counts for each aggregated area.

Use Cases

• Monitoring agricultural health by comparing current `vim` against the long-term average `vim_lta`
• Identifying drought or stress periods using the `viq` anomaly percentage
• Validating the statistical significance of regional aggregates using the `n_pixels` count

Strengths

• Uses NASA MODIS collection 6.1 data from both Aqua and Terra satellites
• Includes `n_pixels` column to quantify the data density behind each administrative aggregate
• Standardized with WFP Pcode references for interoperability with other humanitarian datasets

Limitations

• Spatial resolution is limited to sub-national administrative units rather than raw pixel grids
• Data quality in tropical regions can be affected by persistent cloud cover during satellite overpasses

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via NASA MODIS collection 6.1

Collection Method

Satellite sensor data aggregation

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

Costa Rica