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Full catalog/Tundra_Greeness_Temp_Trends_1893
Tundra_Greeness_Temp_Trends_1893·v1·dataset

Tundra greenness vs summer temperature (Landsat, Arctic)

ABoVE: Landsat Tundra Greenness and Summer Air Temperatures, Arctic Tundra, 1985-2016
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 multiple
In plain English

What it measures. How green the Arctic tundra was each summer compared with how warm it was, across the whole pan-Arctic region from 1985 to 2016. Greenness comes from a vegetation index, and warmth from a summer temperature index, both with uncertainty estimates.

How it's made. Greenness was derived from surface-reflectance images taken by Landsat satellites, while summer warmth was drawn from an ensemble of five global temperature datasets, combined into tables and maps at 50 km resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Lets scientists see how tundra plant growth is responding to a warming Arctic and where it's changing fastest.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS › ALPINE/TUNDRALAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND USE/LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION › VEGETATION INDEXBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE › ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE INDICES › HEAT INDEX

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1985-07-01 → 2016-08-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-5 (TM) · LANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · LANDSAT-8 (OLI)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, 31.49, 180, 90
  • 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 annual tundra greenness and summer air temperatures at a resolution of 50 km over the pan-Arctic tundra biome above 31.5 degrees over the time period 1985 to 2016. Annual tundra greenness was assessed using the maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVImax) derived from surface reflectance measured by sensors on the Landsat satellites. Summer air temperatures were quantified using the Summer Warmth Index (SWI) derived from an ensemble of five global temperature datasets. Tabular data include NDVImax, SWI, and estimates of uncertainty using Monte Carlo simulations at 45,334 vegetated sampling sites. Raster data provide (1) annual SWI from 1985 to 2016; (2) temporal trends in annual NDVImax and SWI from 1985 to 2016 and from 2000 to 2016; and (3) temporal correlations between annual NDVImax - SWI during these two periods. Each raster also includes estimates of uncertainty that were generated using Monte Carlo simulations. This dataset provides a new pan-Arctic product for assessing inter-annual variability in tundra using moderate resolution observations from the Landsat satellites.

Get the data

tundra_greeness_temp_trends_1893_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Tundra_Greeness_Temp_Trends_1893",
    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.