Notice: The Sea Ice Index is updated monthly. Funding constraints prevent us from updating or developing the other Cryospheric Climate Indicators. Soil Temperatures, Snow Cover, and Greenness are shown as prototypes.
Greenness: Peak NDVIPeak NDVI is the maximum value that occurs between the Spring and Fall equinox. If that value does not exceed 0.3, the Peak NDVI is flagged as missing for that pixel, and mapped to a grey color.
Peak NDVI Anomalies (Relative to 1982-2001 Mean)
Notes: The images above reflect a circumpolar rise in peak NDVI. Compared with nascence and SINDVI, there is less spatial and temporal variability. One reason may be that peak NDVI is not as sensitive an indicator. Peak NDVI may approach saturation, because as vegetation density goes up, absorption of visible and IR radiation approaches a maximum beyond which increases in vegetation density no longer register in NDVI. See Continuing the time series with MODIS data for discussion of why more recent MODIS data are not used.
Notes: Time series of peak NDVI values (left) and anomalies from the 1982-2001 mean (right) for 100 km areas of Russia, Canada, and Alaska show a general upward trend in peak NDVI that, like that of SINDVI, is fairly well correlated from place to place. The downward spike at all locations in 1992 reflects the residual effect of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption. (Smaller SINDVI values in 1992-1994 remained in many NDVI data sets even after attempts to correct for Pinatubo's effects on AVHRR-derived NDVI, and primary production may have been reduced as a result of increases in stratospheric aerosols, according to Stow et al., 2003).
Notes: The North Slope, Alaska, region was divided into subsections based on literature suggesting a different greening response for coastal versus inland tundra (see Discussion). The peak NDVI for coastal tundra is lower than that for inland higher elevation tundra but anomalies in peak value are quite similar. |