HR: 10:50h
AN: B42A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Scale 1km Phenological Metrics Derived From the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Vegetation Index Product: Data Characteristics and Potential Applications
AU: * Didan, K
EM: kamel@ag.arizona.edu
AF: The University of Arizona, SWES Department Room 429, Shantz Bldg #38 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AB: Some of the most evident and direct consequences of the complex system of interactions and feedbacks that govern the biosphere and the climate are the changes in the distribution and temporal behavior of the land surface vegetation cover. Vegetation phenology is the measurement of the chronological progress of the climate impression on the biosphere. Phenological metrics can be developed and used to study changes in the land surface and incorporated into global physical and biogeochemical models to predict responses to climate forcings. In this study we used the 5 years of Terra MODIS 1km vegetation index record to drive an ecosystem level phenological metrics extraction algorithm. This algorithm makes extensive use of the per-pixel quality information available with the MODIS data. We derived ten phenological parameters, extracted globally at 1km resolution. These parameters include average VI signal, cumulative VI signal, green-up and dry-down rates, peak VI signal, peak VI signal date, end, start, and length of the growing season, and number of growth seasons in a year. The results were found to be remarkably spatially consistent, and at the exceptional 1km resolution show coherent patterns that can potentially be linked to the prevalent regional climate parameters. These results are being validated with published field observations and collaborative work. We further analyzed these phenological parameters for spatial and temporal anomalies, and observed changes in vegetation dynamics are taking place over many areas of the Earth's surface warranting further research to validate and establish the source of these large scale anomalies.
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0429 Climate dynamics (1620)
DE: 0430 Computational methods and data processing
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005