Temporal Coverage: March 2000 - present (Monthly)
The MISR Land NDVI Average layer displays the temporally averaged normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) calculated from MISR radiances over a particular month. NDVI is a unitless measure of the amount of vegetation present in a particular region, calculated by dividing the difference between near-infrared and red reflectances by their sum. Because reflectances vary between 0 and 1, NDVI therefore varies between -1 and 1, with negative values corresponding to areas with no vegetation and positive values above ~0.2 indicating areas with vegetation, with higher numbers corresponding to denser areas. NDVI values in this layer are clipped to the range of 0.200 to 1.000. NDVI is useful for studying seasonal changes, climate, land use changes, and drought.
This layer is produced from the NDVI average field of the MISR Level 3 Component Global Land Surface Product. It is available globally over land only on a monthly basis, with a spatial resolution of 0.5 degrees latitude by 0.5 degrees longitude. Coverage may be limited in areas with frequent cloudiness.
References: MISR Level 3 Component Global Land Surface Product