Global Data Sets of Vegetation Leaf Area Index (LAI)3g and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR)3g Derived from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI3g) for the Period 1981 to 2011

Long-term global data sets of vegetation Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation absorbed by vegetation (FPAR) are critical to monitoring global vegetation dynamics and for modeling exchanges of energy, mass and momentum between the land surface and planetary boundary layer. LAI and FPAR are also state variables in hydrological, ecological, biogeochemical and crop-yield models. The generation, evaluation and an example case study documenting the utility of 30-year long data sets of LAI and FPAR are described in this article. A neural network algorithm was first developed between the new improved third generation Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) Normalized…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• CS
  China Scholarship Council
• GS
  Goddard Space Flight Center
• ES
  Earth Sciences Division