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Biosphere Data Access and Tools

NASA biosphere data range from surface reflectance data useful for measuring the greenness of vegetation to measurements of nighttime lights that disrupt the behaviors of wildlife. Our datasets and tools help researchers translate these interconnected data points into actionable knowledge.

Biosphere Datasets

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Dataset Platforms Instruments Temporal Extent Location Keywords Data Format
Arctic Vegetation Plots, Prudhoe Bay ArcSEES Road Study, Lake Colleen, Alaska, 2014 FIELD SURVEYS, LABORATORY CORING DEVICES, PROBES, GPS, THERMOMETERS, BALANCE 2014-08-06 to 2014-08-13 CSV
Aspen Forest Cover by Stratum/Plot (SNF) FIELD INVESTIGATION VISUAL OBSERVATIONS 1984-05-10 to 1984-06-12 ASCII
ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset 1 kilometer Binary Terra ASTER 2000-04-04 to 2008-12-31 GLOBAL Binary
ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset 100 meter Binary Terra ASTER 2000-04-01 to 2008-12-31 GLOBAL Binary
ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset, 1 kilometer, HDF5 V003 Terra ASTER 2000-01-01 to 2008-12-31 GLOBAL HDF5
ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset, 100 meter, HDF5 V003 Terra ASTER 2000-01-01 to 2008-12-31 GLOBAL HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height Quick Look V007 ICESat-2 ATLAS 2025-06-08 to Present GLOBAL HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height Quick Look V007 ICESat-2 ATLAS 2025-06-08 to Present GLOBAL HDF5
ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height V007 ICESat-2 ATLAS 2018-10-14 to Present GLOBAL HDF5
Baseline Wetland Type and Land Cover Map of the Great Lakes Basin, 2010 ALOS, COMPUTERS, LANDSAT-5 PALSAR, Computer, TM 2007-04-01 to 2011-04-15 NEW YORK, ONTARIO, QUEBEC, OHIO, INDIANA multiple
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VIIRS
Vegetation indices measure the amount of green vegetation over a given area and can be used to assess vegetation health. A commonly-used vegetation index is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which uses the difference between near-infrared (NIR) and red reflectance divided by their sum. NDVI values range from -1 to 1. Low values of NDVI generally correspond to barren areas of rock, sand, exposed soils, or snow, while higher NDVI values indicate greener vegetation, including forests, croplands, and wetlands.
VIIRS Vegetation Indices on Earthdata Search

Biosphere Data Tools

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Tool Description Services
STREAM STREAM is a rapid water quality monitoring tool that processes satellite imagery to create maps showing chlorophyll-a, Total Suspended Solids, and water clarity at 20-30 meter resolution. Processing
TESViS The Terrestrial Ecology Subsetting & Visualization Services Global Subsets Tool provides on-demand, customized subsets of several terrestrial ecology data products. Visualization, Subsetting
VEDA NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) project is an open-source science cyberinfrastructure for data processing, visualization, exploration, and geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities. Access, Analysis, Processing, Visualization, Geoprocessing
Vertex Vertex is a graphical search interface for finding synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. Search and Discovery, Access, Downloading, Processing, Subsetting
Worldview Worldview offers the capability to interactively browse over 1,200 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and download the underlying data. Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization, Access, Comparison, Monitoring Natural Events
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