Annual Vegetation Changes in South Florida 

This visualization shows annual vegetation changes in portions of Miami-Dade County in south Florida from January 1 to December 30, 2016. Green shades represent where vegetation is thriving, while red shades indicate unhealthy or sparse vegetation. The yearly rhythm of the Everglades [left] contrasts with the steady agriculture near Homestead, FL [right]. The Homestead Air Reserve Base is visible in the center right of the video. Old Rhodes Key and Elliot Key are in the lower right. Biscayne National Park [bottom right], encompassing the coastal areas and the keys, is visible by its vibrant green color throughout the year. The Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station, a twin-reactor nuclear power station located on a 3,300-acre (1,300 ha) site, is two miles east of Homestead, FL. 

The dataset, showing the region’s Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), was produced by the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) project. The project seeks to create a seamless dataset of surface reflectance observations combining data from the U.S. Landsat system and the European Space Agency Sentinel-2 system. These satellites fly instruments that are similar, but not identical. The project performs radiometric and geometric corrections to both datasets to make them as “identical” as possible. The dataset provides observations at 30-meter resolution every 2-3 days over the entire globe. 

Data from the project can be used to track very dynamic phenomena, where changes occur on timescales of a few days or weeks. For example, crop condition and area, burned area, or surface water extent. In agriculture, farmers use NDVI for precision farming and to measure biomass. Whereas, in forestry, foresters use NDVI to quantify forest supply and leaf area index. Furthermore, NDVI is a good indicator of drought. When water limits vegetation growth, it has a lower relative NDVI and density of vegetation. 


For more information, visit 
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12770 

For hyperwall presenter use only. Please do not link to this page from public websites.