SMEX04: Landsat Vegetation and Water Indices for Arizona

SMEX04 Landsat TM/ETM+ NDVI and NDWI, Arizona, Version 1 provides satellite-derived vegetation and water indices specifically for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004. The dataset was developed from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus data to study land cover features. Its primary application is in validating and calibrating soil moisture models using remote sensing techniques.

Use Cases

• Validating soil moisture retrieval models based on satellite-derived vegetation and water indices.
• Analyzing land cover changes in Arizona using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series.
• Calibrating hydrological models with geospatial data on vegetation health and water content.
• Studying the correlation between soil moisture and spectral indices during a controlled field experiment.

Strengths

• Data is tied to a specific, well-documented scientific field campaign (Soil Moisture Experiment 2004).
• Derived from established satellite sensors (Landsat 5 TM and ETM+), ensuring a standardized data source.
• Appears on multiple government data platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), indicating recognized utility.

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by the Principal Investigators and was not reviewed or edited by NSIDC, which may limit support.
• Key metadata such as column names, row count, and file size are consistently reported as unknown or 'None' across all sources.
• There is a conflict in reported last updated dates, with Data.gov showing 2026 (likely a placeholder) and NASA Earthdata showing 2004.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2004

Freshness

2004-08-30 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Arizona, United States