NASA PROVE Shrubland Land Cover Measurements from Four Instruments

NASA's PROVE dataset contains field measurements of shrubland ecological properties from the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, collected May 20-30, 1997. It provides plot-level calculations of plant area index, leaf area index, total fractional cover, and green fractional cover derived from four instruments. The data supports site monitoring and validation of remote-sensing information.

Use Cases

• Comparing instrument-derived estimates of leaf area index and plant area index for validation studies.
• Analyzing total and green fractional cover to assess shrubland vegetation structure.
• Validating remote-sensing land cover products using ground-truth measurements from a controlled field exercise.
• Investigating the impact of height cutoff parameters on laser altimeter estimates of fractional cover.

Strengths

• Data includes measurements from four distinct instruments (digital camera, canopy analyzer, ceptometer, laser altimeter), allowing for cross-validation.
• Measurements are from a focused, 11-day field campaign (May 20-30, 1997) under the NASA PROVE validation exercise.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable across all platforms.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date: Data.gov lists 2026-03-12, while NASA Earthdata lists 1997-05 31.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Field measurements collected during the NASA Earth Observing System Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE) using a Dycam Agricultural Digital Camera, LI-COR LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer, Decagon sunfleck ceptometer, and a laser altimeter.

Time Range

1997-05-20 to 1997-05-30

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:39:25.981509

Geography

Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, USA