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Remote Sensing Phenology

Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycles in relation to the seasons. EROS maintains a set of nine annual phenological metrics for the conterminous United States, all curated from satellite data. Taken together, the metrics represent a powerful tool for documenting life cycle trends and the impacts of climate change on ecosystems.

News

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2022 Released

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2022 Released

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2021 Released

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2021 Released

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2020 Released

Remote Sensing Phenology Metrics for 2020 Released

Publications

Temporal greenness trends in stable natural land cover and relationships with climatic variability across the conterminous United States

Assessment of temporal trends in vegetation greenness and related influences aids understanding of recent change in terrestrial ecosystems and feedbacks from weather, climate, and environment. We analyzed 1-km normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) timeseries data (1989–2016) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and developed growing season time-integrated NDVI
Authors
Lei Ji, Jesslyn F. Brown

Exploring VIIRS continuity with MODIS in an expedited capability for monitoring drought-related vegetation conditions

Vegetation has been effectively monitored using remote sensing time-series vegetation index (VI) data for several decades. Drought monitoring has been a common application with algorithms tuned to capturing anomalous temporal and spatial vegetation patterns. Drought stress models, such as the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), often use VIs like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
Authors
Trenton D Benedict, Jesslyn F. Brown, Stephen P. Boyte, Daniel Howard, Brian Fuchs, Brian D. Wardlow, Tsegaye Tadesse, Kirk Evenson

Optimizing a remote sensing production efficiency model for macro-scale GPP and yield estimation in agroecosystems

Earth observation data are increasingly used to provide consistent eco-physiological information over large areas through time. Production efficiency models (PEMs) estimate Gross Primary Production (GPP) as a function of the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by the canopy, which is derived from Earth observation. GPP can be summed over the growing season and adjusted by a cr
Authors
Michael Marshall, Kevin Tu, Jesslyn F. Brown

Science

Spring Arriving at EROS

Temperatures are slowly getting warmer and it looks like our long winter is coming to an end. Volunteers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center will soon mobilize to monitor and observe the timing of nature's calendar (events like bud burst, flowering, and leaf drop) in conjunction with the USA National Phenology Network. This seasonal activity...
link

Spring Arriving at EROS

Temperatures are slowly getting warmer and it looks like our long winter is coming to an end. Volunteers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center will soon mobilize to monitor and observe the timing of nature's calendar (events like bud burst, flowering, and leaf drop) in conjunction with the USA National Phenology Network. This seasonal activity...
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EROS Phenocam - Live

In September 2014, the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center established a near-ground automated digital camera and joined over 100 other core sites in the PhenoCam Network. Following the protocols of the network, the USGS-EROS camera regularly captures digital imagery and data used to better understand vegetation cycles. As part of a scientific network of automated cameras...
link

EROS Phenocam - Live

In September 2014, the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center established a near-ground automated digital camera and joined over 100 other core sites in the PhenoCam Network. Following the protocols of the network, the USGS-EROS camera regularly captures digital imagery and data used to better understand vegetation cycles. As part of a scientific network of automated cameras...
Learn More

Validation

Documenting the effectiveness of the phenology metrics is difficult given the current scarcity of ground verification data at the appropriate scale (i.e., vegetation-canopy phenology). However, current efforts by the National Phenology Network to build and organize ground observation databases will go far toward addressing these shortcomings. In the meantime, two examples of coincident ground...
link

Validation

Documenting the effectiveness of the phenology metrics is difficult given the current scarcity of ground verification data at the appropriate scale (i.e., vegetation-canopy phenology). However, current efforts by the National Phenology Network to build and organize ground observation databases will go far toward addressing these shortcomings. In the meantime, two examples of coincident ground...
Learn More