VIPPHEN: Global Vegetation Phenology from Satellite Sensors

1981 to 2014 of global vegetation phenology data, derived from AVHRR and MODIS satellite sensors. The dataset provides 26 science datasets, including metrics for the start, peak, and end of growing seasons, at a 0.05-degree spatial resolution. It is designed to offer a consistent, long-term record of vegetation indices like NDVI and EVI2 for tracking biotic responses to environmental change.

Use Cases

• Tracking seasonal vegetation cycles based on phenological metrics like start and end of season.
• Analyzing long-term greening or browning trends using the 30+ year NDVI and EVI2 time series.
• Modeling biotic responses to climate variability using smoothed, 3-year moving window averages.
• Assessing data reliability for specific regions using the included reliability science dataset.

Strengths

• Provides a consistent, multi-sensor record spanning more than 30 years (1981–2014).
• Contains 26 detailed science datasets, including phenological metrics and reliability indicators.
• Data is processed with a 3-year moving window average to reduce noise.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2014-12-31 vs. 2026-04-09), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs program

Collection Method

Derived from surface reflectance data from AVHRR (N07, N09, N11, N14) and MODIS/Terra sensors.

Time Range

1981 – 2014

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:10:29.136561 (from datagov, but conflicts with nasa_earthdata date)

Geography

Global at 0.05-degree (approx. 5600m) resolution