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Full catalog/Mean_Seasonal_LAI_1653
Mean_Seasonal_LAI_1653·v1·dataset

Typical monthly leaf coverage of the globe (1981-2015)

Global Monthly Mean Leaf Area Index Climatology, 1981-2015
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 netCDF-4 classic
In plain English

What it measures. A month-by-month picture of typical leaf coverage across the globe, showing how much leaf area there normally is in each season. It represents an average pattern rather than any single year.

How it's made. Built from decades of AVHRR satellite vegetation measurements (1981 to 2015), cleaned up, regridded to a quarter-degree grid, and averaged to produce a long-term monthly climatology.

How & where you'd use it. Gives researchers a baseline of normal seasonal greening to compare against and to feed into climate and ecosystem models.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › LEAF CHARACTERISTICS › LEAF AREA INDEX (LAI)BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1981-08-01 → 2015-08-31
  • Measured byMODELS (Computer) · Terra (MODIS) · NOAA POES (AVHRR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsnetCDF-4 classic
  • 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 a global 0.25 degree x 0.25 degree gridded monthly mean leaf area index (LAI) climatology as averaged over the period from August 1981 to August 2015. The data were derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) LAI3g version 2, a bi-weekly data product from 1981 to 2015 (GIMMS-LAI3g version 2). The LAI3g version 2 (raw) data were first regridded from 1/12 x 1/12 degree to 0.25 x 0.25 degree resolution, then processed to remove missing and unreasonable values, scaled to obtain LAI values, and the bi-weekly LAI values were averaged for every month. Finally, the monthly long-term mean LAI (1981-2015) was calculated.

Get the data

mean_seasonal_lai_1653_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Mean_Seasonal_LAI_1653",
    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.