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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 Version Platforms Instruments Temporal Extent Spatial Extent Spatial Resolution Data Format
ABoVE: Landsat-derived Annual Disturbance Agents Across ABoVE Core Domain, 1987-2012 1 LANDSAT, LANDSAT-5 ETM+, TM 1985-01-01 to 2012-12-31

N: 75.6853 S: 50.259 E: -98.974 W: -169.96

multiple
VEMAP 2: Monthly Ecosystem Model Responses to U.S. Climate Change, 1994-2100 1 NOT APPLICABLE NOT APPLICABLE 1994-01-01 to 2100-12-31

N: 50 S: 26 E: -66 W: -124

netCDF-3
Arctic Vegetation Plots from Pingo Communities, North Slope, Alaska, 1984-1986 1 FIELD SURVEYS VISUAL OBSERVATIONS 1983-01-01 to 1983-12-31

N: 70.4996 S: 69.7116 E: -147.657 W: -149.949

CSV
CMS: Pinyon-Juniper Forest Live Aboveground Biomass, Great Basin, USA, 2000-2016 1 MODELS Computer 2000-01-01 to 2016-12-31

N: 47.1179 S: 33.9309 E: -109.312 W: -123.896

GeoTIFF
BOREAS RSS-20 POLDER C-130 Measurements of Surface BRDF 1 C-130 POLDER 1994-05-24 to 1994-07-24

N: 53.99 S: 53.63 E: -104.62 W: -106.2

ASCII
SHIFT: Vegetation Plot Characterization, Santa Barbara County, CA, 2022 1 FIELD SURVEYS SURVEYING TOOLS 2022-02-23 to 2022-09-27

N: 34.89 S: 34.39 E: -119.52 W: -120.62

multiple
Canopy Height and Biomass from LiDAR Surveys at La Selva, Costa Rica, 1998 and 2005 1 B-200 LVIS 1998-03-01 to 2005-03-31

N: 10.4526 S: 10.3989 E: -83.9956 W: -84.0472

multiple
Development and Evolution of NASA Satellite Remote Sensing for Ecology 1 Publications Computer 1972-01-01 to 2014-12-31

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

PDF
ISLSCP II Ecosystem Rooting Depths 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, AVHRR, MODIS 1995-02-01 to 1995-07-31

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

ASCII
LBA-ECO LC-07 Aquatic Marcophyte Biomass, Monte Alegre Lake, Para, Brazil: 2003-2004 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION BALANCE 2003-12-14 to 2004-12-04

N: -1.9991 S: -2.6825 E: -53.9509 W: -54.8426

CSV
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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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