Using AVHRR Data for Quantitative Estimation of Vegetation Conditions: Calibration and Validation

Authors

Anatoly A. Gitelson, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Felix Kogan, United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationFollow
E. Zakarin, Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan
L. Spivak, Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan
L. Lebed, National Meteorological Administration, Kazakhstan

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1998

Comments

Published in Advances in Space Research (1998) 22(5): 673-676.

Abstract

NDVI-derived Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) was compared with vegetation density, biomass and reflectance measured in the fields. The VCI numerically estimates fluctuation of NDVI related to intra-annual weather change only and is a measure of weather impact on vegetation. Test fields were located in different climatic (annual precipitation 150-700 mm) and ecological zones (semi-desert to steppe-forest) with elevation from 200 to 700 m in Kazakhstan. A range of NDVI variation was from 0.05 to 0.47. The determination coefficient between AVHRR-derived vegetation state and actually measured vegetation density of more than 0.76 was achieved. For the first time it was shown that the VCI-derived vegetation condition data can be effectively used for quantitative assessments of both vegetation state and productivity (density and biomass) over large areas.