Sudan Subnational NDVI: Dekadal Vegetation Indices and Anomalies

The World Food Programme provides this dataset of dekadal NDVI indicators for Sudan, derived from NASA MODIS collection 6.1 satellite imagery. It tracks vegetation health across sub-national administrative units using 10-day intervals, including historical averages and percentage anomalies. The data is aggregated from Aqua and Terra satellite sensors and mapped to specific WFP administrative boundaries.

Use Cases

• Monitoring agricultural health by comparing current NDVI (vim) against the long-term average (vim_lta)
• Identifying drought conditions or vegetation stress using the NDVI anomaly percentage (viq)
• Assessing the statistical reliability of regional aggregates using the n_pixels column

Strengths

• Uses NASA MODIS collection 6.1 high-resolution satellite data
• Includes long-term average (vim_lta) for historical baseline comparison
• Provides pixel counts (n_pixels) to indicate the reliability of each aggregate

Limitations

• Aggregated at the administrative level, which obscures fine-grained spatial variation within units
• Dependent on cloud-free satellite observations which may reduce the n_pixels count during rainy seasons

Provenance

Source

World Food Programme (WFP) via NASA MODIS

Collection Method

Satellite sensor aggregation from Aqua and Terra platforms

Freshness

Updated as of March 2026.

Geography

Sudan