SMEX04 Arizona Landsat Vegetation and Water Index Data

2004 Landsat 5 TM and ETM+ satellite data provides Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) for land cover analysis during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04) in Arizona. The dataset is produced by NASA but its documentation was provided solely by Principal Investigators and not formally reviewed by NSIDC. It is hosted on multiple government platforms, indicating its established use in the scientific community.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vegetation density and health changes using NDVI values.
• Assessing surface water content and moisture stress in vegetation using NDWI.
• Supporting land cover classification and change detection studies.
• Calibrating or validating soil moisture models for agricultural or hydrological applications.

Strengths

• Data is derived from established Landsat 5 satellite sensors (TM and ETM+).
• Cross-platform presence on Data.gov and NASA EarthData signals recognized scientific utility.
• Focuses on a specific, well-documented field campaign (SMEX04) providing experimental context.

Limitations

• Documentation was not reviewed or edited by the hosting center (NSIDC), limiting support.
• Critical metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable from all sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date between platforms (2004 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about maintenance.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Developed from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite data.

Time Range

2004

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:23:21.793772

Geography

Arizona, United States