Search USGS⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search USGS

Results for “Journal of Remote Sensing”

Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Land cover change on the Seward Peninsula: The use of remote sensing to evaluate the potential influences of climate warming on historical vegetation dynamics

Vegetation on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, which is characterized by transitions from tundra to boreal forest, may be sensitive to the influences of climate change on disturbance and species composition. To determine the ability to detect decadal-scale structural changes in vegetation. Change Vector Analysis (CVA) techniques were evaluated for Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery of the Seward Peninsula from 1986 to 1999. Scenes were geographically corrected to sub-pixel accuracy and then radiometrically rectified. Between the 1986 and 1992 satellite scenes, the CVA detected changes in direction and magnitude of the two indices (TM Band 4/TM Band 3. TM Band 5). For Row 14, change was detected for 135,518 ha and for Row 15, change was detected for 111,831 ha. Between the 1992 and 1999 scenes, change was detected by CVA for 93,278 ha. CVA results and photo interpretation together show that shrub advance is approximately 100 metres in valleys north of the Bendeleben Mountains and that shrubs have increased along riverbed bottoms. Across Path 78 Row 14 and 15, the unsupervised classification detected that 55% of the pixels changed between 1986 and 1992. Overall, approximately 759,610 ha changed to a class with a more developed canopy and only 268,132 ha changed to a class with a less developed canopy. Thus, the change detection analysis based on the unsupervised classification indicates that land-cover change on the Seward Peninsula was predominantly in the direction of increased shrubbiness. Taken together, our comparison of CVA results, unsupervised classification results, and visual interpretation of aerial photographs suggests that shrub cover may be increasing on the Seward Peninsula, which is consistent with results from experimental warming in tundra. The use of both CVA and unsupervised classification together provided a more powerful interpretation of change than either method alone in transitional regions between tundra and boreal forest.

Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Estimated global nitrogen deposition using NO 2 column density

Global nitrogen deposition has increased over the past 100 years. Monitoring and simulation studies of nitrogen deposition have evaluated nitrogen deposition at both the global and regional scale. With the development of remote-sensing instruments, tropospheric NO 2 column density retrieved from Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) and Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) sensors now provides us with a new opportunity to understand changes in reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere. The concentration of NO 2 in the atmosphere has a significant effect on atmospheric nitrogen deposition. According to the general nitrogen deposition calculation method, we use the principal component regression method to evaluate global nitrogen deposition based on global NO2 column density and meteorological data. From the accuracy of the simulation, about 70% of the land area of the Earth passed a significance test of regression. In addition, NO2 column density has a significant influence on regression results over 44% of global land. The simulated results show that global average nitrogen deposition was 0.34 g m −2 yr −1 from 1996 to 2009 and is increasing at about 1% per year. Our simulated results show that China, Europe, and the USA are the three hotspots of nitrogen deposition according to previous research findings. In this study, Southern Asia was found to be another hotspot of nitrogen deposition (about 1.58 g m −2 yr −1 and maintaining a high growth rate). As nitrogen deposition increases, the number of regions threatened by high nitrogen deposits is also increasing. With N emissions continuing to increase in the future, areas whose ecosystem is affected by high level nitrogen deposition will increase.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

A neural network approach for enhancing information extraction from multispectral image data

A back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to classify multispectral remote sensing imagery data. The classification procedure included four steps: (i) noisy training that adds minor random variations to the sampling data to make the data more representative and to reduce the training sample size; (ii) iterative or multi-tier classification that reclassifies the unclassified pixels by making a subset of training samples from the original training set, which means the neural model can focus on fewer classes; (iii) spectral channel selection based on neural network weights that can distinguish the relative importance of each channel in the classification process to simplify the ANN model; and (iv) voting rules that adjust the accuracy of classification and produce outputs of different confidence levels. The Purdue Forest, located west of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, was chosen as the test site. The 1992 Landsat thematic mapper imagery was used as the input data. High-quality airborne photographs of the same Lime period were used for the ground truth. A total of 11 land use and land cover classes were defined, including water, broadleaved forest, coniferous forest, young forest, urban and road, and six types of cropland-grassland. The experiment, indicated that the back-propagation neural network application was satisfactory in distinguishing different land cover types at US Geological Survey levels II-III. The single-tier classification reached an overall accuracy of 85%. and the multi-tier classification an overall accuracy of 95%. For the whole test, region, the final output of this study reached an overall accuracy of 87%. ?? 2005 CASI.

Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Cross-sensor comparisons between Landsat 5 TM and IRS-P6 AWiFS and disturbance detection using integrated Landsat and AWiFS time-series images

Routine acquisition of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data was discontinued recently and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) has an ongoing problem with the scan line corrector (SLC), thereby creating spatial gaps when covering images obtained during the process. Since temporal and spatial discontinuities of Landsat data are now imminent, it is therefore important to investigate other potential satellite data that can be used to replace Landsat data. We thus cross-compared two near-simultaneous images obtained from Landsat 5 TM and the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-P6 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), both captured on 29 May 2007 over Los Angeles, CA. TM and AWiFS reflectances were compared for the green, red, near-infrared (NIR), and shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands, as well as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based on manually selected polygons in homogeneous areas. All R 2 values of linear regressions were found to be higher than 0.99. The temporally invariant cluster (TIC) method was used to calculate the NDVI correlation between the TM and AWiFS images. The NDVI regression line derived from selected polygons passed through several invariant cluster centres of the TIC density maps and demonstrated that both the scene-dependent polygon regression method and TIC method can generate accurate radiometric normalization. A scene-independent normalization method was also used to normalize the AWiFS data. Image agreement assessment demonstrated that the scene-dependent normalization using homogeneous polygons provided slightly higher accuracy values than those obtained by the scene-independent method. Finally, the non-normalized and relatively normalized ‘Landsat-like’ AWiFS 2007 images were integrated into 1984 to 2010 Landsat time-series stacks (LTSS) for disturbance detection using the Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT) model. Both scene-dependent and scene-independent normalized AWiFS data sets could generate disturbance maps similar to what were generated using the LTSS data set, and their kappa coefficients were higher than 0.97. These results indicate that AWiFS can be used instead of Landsat data to detect multitemporal disturbance in the event of Landsat data discontinuity.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Crop classification modelling using remote sensing and environmental data in the Greater Platte River Basin, USA

With an ever expanding population, potential climate variability and an increasing demand for agriculture-based alternative fuels, accurate agricultural land-cover classification for specific crops and their spatial distributions are becoming critical to researchers, policymakers, land managers and farmers. It is important to ensure the sustainability of these and other land uses and to quantify the net impacts that certain management practices have on the environment. Although other quality crop classification products are often available, temporal and spatial coverage gaps can create complications for certain regional or time-specific applications. Our goal was to develop a model capable of classifying major crops in the Greater Platte River Basin (GPRB) for the post-2000 era to supplement existing crop classification products. This study identifies annual spatial distributions and area totals of corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops across the GPRB from 2000 to 2009. We developed a regression tree classification model based on 2.5 million training data points derived from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cropland Data Layer (CDL) in relation to a variety of other relevant input environmental variables. The primary input variables included the weekly 250 m US Geological Survey Earth Observing System Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer normalized differential vegetation index, average long-term growing season temperature, average long-term growing season precipitation and yearly start of growing season. An overall model accuracy rating of 78% was achieved for a test sample of roughly 215 000 independent points that were withheld from model training. Ten 250 m resolution annual crop classification maps were produced and evaluated for the GPRB region, one for each year from 2000 to 2009. In addition to the model accuracy assessment, our validation focused on spatial distribution and county-level crop area totals in comparison with the NASS CDL and county statistics from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census of Agriculture. The results showed that our model produced crop classification maps that closely resembled the spatial distribution trends observed in the NASS CDL and exhibited a close linear agreement with county-by-county crop area totals from USDA census data ( R 2 = 0.90).

Greater Platte River Basin↗

Detecting post-fire burn severity and vegetation recovery using multitemporal remote sensing spectral indices and field-collected composite burn index data in a ponderosa pine forest

It is challenging to detect burn severity and vegetation recovery because of the relatively long time period required to capture the ecosystem characteristics. Multitemporal remote sensing data can providemultitemporal observations before, during and after a wildfire, and can improve the change detection accuracy. The goal of this study is to examine the correlations between multitemporal spectral indices and field-observed burn severity, and to provide a practical method to estimate burn severity and vegetation recovery. The study site is the Jasper Fire area in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, that burned during August and September 2000. Six multitemporal Landsat images acquired from 2000 (pre-fire), 2001 (post-fire), 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007 were used to assess burn severity. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), normalized burn ratio (NBR), integrated forest index (IFI) and the differences of these indices between the pre-fire and post-fire years were computed and analysed with 66 field-based composite burn index (CBI) plots collected in 2002. Results showed that differences of NDVI and differences of EVI between the pre-fire year and the first two years post-fire were highly correlated with the CBI scores. The correlations were low beyond the second year post-fire. Differences of NBR had good correlation with CBI scores in all study years. Differences of IFI had low correlation with CBI in the first year post-fire and had good correlation in later years. A CBI map of the burnt area was produced using regression tree models and the multitemporal images. The dynamics of four spectral indices from 2000 to 2007 indicated that both NBR and IFI are valuable for monitoring long-term vegetation recovery. The high burn severity areas had a much slower recovery than the moderate and low burn areas.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Analysis of the impact of spatial resolution on land/water classifications using high-resolution aerial imagery

Long-term monitoring efforts often use remote sensing to track trends in habitat or landscape conditions over time. To most appropriately compare observations over time, long-term monitoring efforts strive for consistency in methods. Thus, advances and changes in technology over time can present a challenge. For instance, modern camera technology has led to an increasing availability of very high-resolution imagery (i.e. submetre and metre) and a shift from analogue to digital photography. While numerous studies have shown that image resolution can impact the accuracy of classifications, most of these studies have focused on the impacts of comparing spatial resolution changes greater than 2 m. Thus, a knowledge gap exists on the impacts of minor changes in spatial resolution (i.e. submetre to about 1.5 m) in very high-resolution aerial imagery (i.e. 2 m resolution or less). This study compared the impact of spatial resolution on land/water classifications of an area dominated by coastal marsh vegetation in Louisiana, USA, using 1:12,000 scale colour-infrared analogue aerial photography (AAP) scanned at four different dot-per-inch resolutions simulating ground sample distances (GSDs) of 0.33, 0.54, 1, and 2 m. Analysis of the impact of spatial resolution on land/water classifications was conducted by exploring various spatial aspects of the classifications including density of waterbodies and frequency distributions in waterbody sizes. This study found that a small-magnitude change (1–1.5 m) in spatial resolution had little to no impact on the amount of water classified (i.e. percentage mapped was less than 1.5%), but had a significant impact on the mapping of very small waterbodies (i.e. waterbodies ≤ 250 m 2 ). These findings should interest those using temporal image classifications derived from very high-resolution aerial photography as a component of long-term monitoring programs.

Louisiana↗

Deep learning approaches on Landsat observations: A review and meta-analysis

Although multiple summary reviews of deep learning in remote sensing have been conducted, the field currently lacks a comprehensive analysis of deep learning utilizing Landsat observations in single time pixel-based classification, both qualitatively and quantitatively. This study addresses this gap by conducting a systematic review based on 352 case studies extracted from 279 peer-reviewed articles that supported direct comparisons across deep learning and traditional classifiers. Qualitatively, our findings are as follows: (i) Two dimensional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) remain the dominant methods; however, exploring other architectures is becoming a growing trend. (ii) Most studies focused on single countries (e.g., China, USA, and India) and the last decade, (iii) Sentinel-2 are the most commonly fused sensors, and vegetation indices are the most commonly used spectral indices. The quantitative meta-analysis revealed that Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) offer an approximate 5% improvement for non-DNN accuracy of 80%, with potentially higher improvements for more challenging tasks. By contrasting between popular DNN methods, UNets achieve higher overall accuracy (OA) than CNNs (approximately 10% UNet improvement when CNN OA is at 80%). However, UNets are more challenging to implement because they require labels for large contiguous reference patches, while CNNs, at least at 30m Landsat pixel, pose lower spatial requirements. In another comparison, Transformers achieve higher OA than CNNs (approximately 5% Transformer improvement when CNN OA is at 80%), although the accuracy improvements are smaller compared to the increases associated with UNet benefits. With greater flexibility and more standardized architecture, Transformers can potentially simplify the design process of models. However, Transformers also face challenges having higher computational resource and memory requirements. Increasing availability of reference datasets, further algorithmic developments in the machine learning field, and improvements in cloud-based computing power and data storage, could increase the utility of deep learning methods on Landsat observations.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Global irrigated area map (GIAM), derived from remote sensing, for the end of the last millennium

A Global Irrigated Area Map (GIAM) has been produced for the end of the last millennium using multiple satellite sensor, secondary, Google Earth and groundtruth data. The data included: (a) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 3-band and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) 10 km monthly time-series for 1997-1999, (b) Syste me pour l'Observation de la Terre Vegetation (SPOT VGT) NDVI 1 km monthly time series for 1999, (c) East Anglia University Climate Research Unit (CRU) rainfall 50km monthly time series for 1961-2000, (d) Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation Data Set (GTOPO30) 1 km digital elevation data of the World, (e) Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (JERS-1 SAR) data for the rain forests during two seasons in 1996 and (f) University of Maryland Global Tree Cover 1 km data for 1992-1993. A single mega-file data-cube (MFDC) of the World with 159 layers, akin to hyperspectral data, was composed by re-sampling different data types into a common 1 km resolution. The MFDC was segmented based on elevation, temperature and precipitation zones. Classification was performed on the segments. Quantitative spectral matching techniques (SMTs) used in hyperspectral data analysis were adopted to group class spectra derived from unsupervised classification and match them with ideal or target spectra. A rigorous class identification and labelling process involved the use of: (a) space-time spiral curve (ST-SC) plots, (b) brightness-greenness-wetness (BGW) plots, (c) time series NDVI plots, (d) Google Earth very-high-resolution imagery (VHRI) 'zoom-in views' in over 11 000 locations, (e) groundtruth data broadly sourced from the degree confluence project (3 864 sample locations) and from the GIAM project (1 790 sample locations), (f) high-resolution Landsat-ETM+ Geocover 150m mosaic of the World and (g) secondary data (e.g. national and global land use and land cover data). Mixed classes were resolved based on decision tree algorithms and spatial modelling, and when that did not work, the problem class was used to mask and re-classify the MDFC, and the class identification and labelling protocol repeated. The sub-pixel area (SPA) calculations were performed by multiplying full-pixel areas (FPAs) with irrigated area fractions (IAFs) for every class. A 28 class GIAM was produced and the area statistics reported as: (a) annualized irrigated areas (AIAs), which consider intensity of irrigation (i.e. sum of irrigated areas from different seasons in a year plus continuous year-round irrigation or gross irrigated areas), and (b) total area available for irrigation (TAAI), which does not consider intensity of irrigation (i.e. irrigated areas at any given point of time plus the areas left fallow but 'equipped for irrigation' at the same point of time or net irrigated areas). The AIA of the World at the end of the last millennium was 467 million hectares (Mha), which is sum of the non-overlapping areas of: (a) 252 Mha from season one, (b) 174 Mha from season two and (c) 41 Mha from continuous year-round crops. The TAAI at the end of the last millennium was 399 Mha. The distribution of irrigated areas is highly skewed amongst continents and countries. Asia accounts for 79% (370 Mha) of all AIAs, followed by Europe (7%) and North America (7%). Three continents, South America (4%), Africa (2%) and Australia (1%), have a very low proportion of the global irrigation. The GIAM had an accuracy of 79-91%, with errors of omission not exceeding 21%, and the errors of commission not exceeding 23%. The GIAM statistics were also compared with: (a) the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and University of Frankfurt (UF) derived irrigated areas and (b) national census data for India. The relationships and causes of differences are discussed in detail. The GIAM products are made available through a web portal (http://www.iwmigiam.org). ?? 2009 Taylor & Francis.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Characterizing the spatial structure of endangered species habitat using geostatistical analysis of IKONOS imagery

Our study used geostatistics to extract measures that characterize the spatial structure of vegetated landscapes from satellite imagery for mapping endangered Sonoran pronghorn habitat. Fine spatial resolution IKONOS data provided information at the scale of individual trees or shrubs that permitted analysis of vegetation structure and pattern. We derived images of landscape structure by calculating local estimates of the nugget, sill, and range variogram parameters within 25 ?? 25-m image windows. These variogram parameters, which describe the spatial autocorrelation of the 1-m image pixels, are shown in previous studies to discriminate between different species-specific vegetation associations. We constructed two independent models of pronghorn landscape preference by coupling the derived measures with Sonoran pronghorn sighting data: a distribution-based model and a cluster-based model. The distribution-based model used the descriptive statistics for variogram measures at pronghorn sightings, whereas the cluster-based model used the distribution of pronghorn sightings within clusters of an unsupervised classification of derived images. Both models define similar landscapes, and validation results confirm they effectively predict the locations of an independent set of pronghorn sightings. Such information, although not a substitute for field-based knowledge of the landscape and associated ecological processes, can provide valuable reconnaissance information to guide natural resource management efforts.

Arizona↗

Capability of AVHRR data in discriminating rangeland cover mixtures

A combination of high temporal resolution Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data and high spatial information Map Information Analysis and Display System (MIADS) landuse/landcover data from the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) were used to investigate the feasibility of using the combined dataset for regional evapotranspiration (ET) studies. It was shown that the biweekly maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composite AVHRR data were capable of discriminating rangelands with different types of trees and shrubs species. AVHRR data also showed a potential to distinguish canopy cover differences within a mix of similar species. The combination of MIADS data and AVHRR data can be used to study temporal dynamics of various cover types for use in regional ET estimates.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

A comparison of the IGBP DISCover and University of Maryland 1 km global land cover products

Two global 1 km land cover data sets derived from 1992-1993 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data are currently available, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Data and Information System (IGBP-DIS) DISCover and the University of Maryland (UMd) 1 km land cover maps. This paper makes a preliminary comparison of the methodologies and results of the two products. The DISCover methodology employed an unsupervised clustering classification scheme on a per-continent basis using 12 monthly maximum NDVI composites as inputs. The UMd approach employed a supervised classification tree method in which temporal metrics derived from all AVHRR bands and the NDVI were used to predict class membership across the entire globe. The DISCover map uses the IGBP classification scheme, while the UMd map employs a modified IGBP scheme minus the classes of permanent wetlands, cropland/natural vegetation mosaic and ice and snow. Global area totals of aggregated vegetation types are very similar and have a per-pixel agreement of 74%. For tall versus short/no vegetation, the per-pixel agreement is 84%. For broad vegetation types, core areas map similarly, while transition zones around core areas differ significantly. This results in high regional variability between the maps. Individual class agreement between the two 1 km maps is 49%. Comparison of the maps at a nominal 0.5 resolution with two global ground-based maps shows an improvement of thematic concurrency of 46% when viewing average class agreement. The absence of the cropland mosaic class creates a difficulty in comparing the maps, due to its significant extent in the DISCover map. The DISCover map, in general, has more forest, while the UMd map has considerably more area in the intermediate tree cover classes of woody savanna/ woodland and savanna/wooded grassland.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

An evaluation of the global 1-km AVHRR land dataset

This paper summarizes the steps taken in the generation of the global 1-km AVHRR land dataset, and it documents an evaluation of the data product with respect to the original specifications and its usefulness in research and applications to date. The evaluation addresses data characterization, processing, compositing and handling issues. Examples of the main scientific outputs are presented and options for improved processing are outlined and prioritized. The dataset has made a significant contribution, and a strong recommendation is made for its reprocessing and continuation to produce a long-term record for global change research.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Study of high SAR backscattering caused by an increase of soil moisture over a sparsely vegetated area: Implications for characteristics of backscattering

We used interferometric methods on a pair of repeat-pass ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to study soil moisture changes over sparsely vegetated targets. The intensity of the SAR image acquired at one time was higher than that of an image acquired at an earlier time. We used a correlation image computed from the SAR image pair to study the cause of the observed changes in SAR intensity. Because a reduction of correlation over areas with intensity changes was not observed, we interpreted the intensity changes as not being caused by changes in roughness/structure, but by a change in soil moisture owing to rainfall. An increase in soil moisture ranging from 5% to 20% is the most likely explanation for the increase of intensity. These analyses imply that both intensity and phase information should be used in SAR change detection applications.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

An assessment of support vector machines for land cover classification

The support vector machine (SVM) is a group of theoretically superior machine learning algorithms. It was found competitive with the best available machine learning algorithms in classifying high-dimensional data sets. This paper gives an introduction to the theoretical development of the SVM and an experimental evaluation of its accuracy, stability and training speed in deriving land cover classifications from satellite images. The SVM was compared to three other popular classifiers, including the maximum likelihood classifier (MLC), neural network classifiers (NNC) and decision tree classifiers (DTC). The impacts of kernel configuration on the performance of the SVM and of the selection of training data and input variables on the four classifiers were also evaluated in this experiment.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

Derivation of a tasselled cap transformation based on Landsat 7 at-satellite reflectance

A new tasselled cap transformation based on Landsat 7 at-satellite reflectance was developed. This transformation is most appropriate for regional applications where atmospheric correction is not feasible. The brightness, greenness and wetness of the derived transformation collectively explained over 97% of the spectral variance of the individual scenes used in this study.

International Journal of Remote Sensing↗

The utility of estimating net primary productivity over Alaska using baseline AVHRR data

Net primary productivity (NPP) is a fundamental ecological variable that provides information about the health and status of vegetation communities. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI, derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is increasingly being used to model or predict NPP, especially over large remote areas. In this article, seven seasonally based metrics calculated from a seven-year baseline NDVI dataset were used to model NPP over Alaska, USA. For each growing season, they included maximum, mean and summed NDVI, total days, product of total days and maximum NDVI, an integral estimate of NDVI and a summed product of NDVI and solar radiation. Field (plot) derived NPP estimates were assigned to 18 land cover classes from an Alaskan statewide land cover database. Linear relationships between NPP and each NDVI metric were analysed at four scales: plot, 1-km, 10-km and 20-km pixels. Results show moderate to poor relationship between any of the metrics and NPP estimates for all data sets and scales. Use of NDVI for estimating NPP may be possible, but caution is required due to data seasonality, the scaling process used and land surface heterogeneity.

Alaska↗

Variability of the seasonally integrated normalized difference vegetation index across the north slope of Alaska in the 1990s

The interannual variability and trend of above-ground photosynthetic activity of Arctic tundra vegetation in the 1990s is examined for the north slope region of Alaska, based on the seasonally integrated normalized difference vegetation index (SINDVI) derived from local area coverage (LAC) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. Smaller SINDVI values occurred during the three years (1992-1994) following the volcanic eruption of Mt Pinatubo. Even after implementing corrections for this stratospheric aerosol effect and adjusting for changes in radiometric calibration coefficients, an apparent increasing trend of SINDVI in the 1990s is evident for the entire north slope. The most pronounced increase was observed for the foothills physiographical province.

Alaska↗