Spatiotemporally consistent global dataset of the GIMMS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (PKU GIMMS NDVI) from 1982 to 2022 (V1.1)

Brief Introduction:

The PKU GIMMS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index product (PKU GIMMS NDVI, version 1.1) provides spatiotemporally consistent global NDVI data in half-month and 1/12° from 1982 to 2022. It is created to address the major uncertainties presented in current global long-term NDVI products, i.e., the effects of NOAA satellite orbital drift and AVHRR sensor degradation.

The PKU GIMMS NDVI was generated based on biome-specific BPNN models that employed GIMMS NDVI3g product and 3.6 million high-quality global Landsat NDVI samples. It was then consolidated with the MODIS NDVI (MOD13C1) to extend the temporal coverage to 2022 via a pixel-wise Random Forests fusion method.

The PKU GIMMS NDVI exhibits overall high accuracy evaluated by Landsat NDVI samples. Besides, it efficiently eliminated the effects of satellite orbital drift and sensor degradation and presents a good temporal consistency with MODIS NDVI in terms of pixel value and global vegetation trend. It could potentially provide a more solid data basis for global change studies.

Here we provide two versions of PKU GIMMS NDVI for download, one solely based on AVHRR data (1982−2015) and the other consolidated with the MODIS NDVI (1982−2022).

Dataset Characteristics:

Spatial Coverage:       180ºW~180ºE, 63ºS~90ºN

Projection:                 Geographic

Spatial Resolution:     1/12 degree

Temporal Resolution: Half month

Temporal Coverage:  January 1982 to December 2022

Image Dimension:     Rows-2160; Columns-4320

Units:                      unitless

Fill Value:                  65535

Data Type:                  uint16

Valid Range:              0-1000

Scale Factor:                     0.001

File Format:               TIFF(.tif)

File Size:                    ~8Mb each file

References:

Li, M., Cao, S., and Zhu, Z.: Spatiotemporally consistent global dataset of the GIMMS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (PKU GIMMS NDVI) from 1982 to 2020, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-1, in review, 2023.