VIP15: Global Vegetation Indices from AVHRR and MODIS

More than 30 years of twice-monthly vegetation index data, from 1981 to 2014, provides a consistent long-term record for monitoring plant life cycles. The dataset combines Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data from 1981-1999 with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 2000-2014, calculating Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) at a 0.05-degree spatial resolution. It includes 12 Science Datasets per file, containing the indices, quality assurance flags, input surface reflectance, and viewing geometry.

Use Cases

• Tracking vegetation phenology based on the seasonal NDVI and EVI2 time series.
• Assessing biophysical properties of the land surface using the calculated vegetation indices.
• Analyzing long-term climate impacts on global vegetation using the multi-sensor, gap-filled record.
• Validating ecological models with pixel reliability and quality assurance data.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal span of more than 30 years, from 1981 to 2014.
• Provides consistent, gap-filled measurements by merging data from two major satellite sensor systems.
• Contains 12 Science Datasets per file, including indices, quality flags, and input reflectance data.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• Blue and Middle Infrared (MIR) surface reflectance data are only available for the MODIS era (2000-2014).
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one listing 2014-12-31 and others listing 2026-04-09.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) MEaSUREs program

Collection Method

Created from AVHRR N07, N09, N11, N14 (1981-1999) and MODIS/Terra MOD09 (2000-2014) surface reflectance data.

Time Range

1981 to 2014

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:19:20.935249

Geography

Global