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Full catalog/BorealForest_Greenness_Trends_2023
BorealForest_Greenness_Trends_2023·v1·dataset

How boreal forest greenness changed over decades (Landsat)

ABoVE: Landsat Vegetation Greenness Trends, Boreal Forest Biome, 1985-2019
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 multiple
In plain English

What it measures. Trends in how green the boreal forest became from 1985 to 2019, measured as year-to-year changes in peak vegetation greenness at sample locations.

How it's made. Derived from decades of Landsat satellite imagery (Landsat 5, 7, and 8) by combining several greenness indices at about 100,000 random forest sites, with uncertainty estimated through simulations.

How & where you'd use it. Provides evidence of a shifting boreal forest under climate warming, helping researchers see where forests are greening or browning over time.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS › FORESTSCLIMATE INDICATORS › BIOSPHERIC INDICATORS › PHENOLOGICAL CHANGES › PLANT PHENOLOGICAL CHANGESBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › PLANT PHENOLOGYBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › EVERGREEN VEGETATIONLAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION › VEGETATION INDEX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1985-01-01 → 2019-12-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-5 (TM) · LANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · LANDSAT-8 (OLI, TIRS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, 45, 180, 72
  • Formatsmultiple
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

This dataset provides information on interannual trends in annual maximum vegetation greenness from 1985 to 2019 for recently undisturbed areas in the boreal forest biome. Multi-decadal changes in remotely sensed vegetation greenness provide evidence of an emerging boreal biome shift driven by climate warming. Annual maximum vegetation greenness was assessed at about 100,000 random sample locations using an ensemble of spectral vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI2, kNDVI, and NIRv) derived from Landsat products. The dataset provides raster data summarizing vegetation greenness trends for sample locations stratified by Ecological Land Unit in GeoTIFF format. These raster data span the circum-hemispheric boreal forest biome between 45 to 70 degrees north at 300 m resolution. Estimates of uncertainty were generated using Monte Carlo simulations. Interannual trends in annual maximum vegetation greenness from 1985 to 2019 and 2000 to 2019 are provided for sample locations with adequate data for time series analysis; these data are in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

Get the data

borealforest_greenness_trends_2023_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="BorealForest_Greenness_Trends_2023",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.