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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
ISLSCP II IGBP DISCover and SiB Land Cover, 1992-1993 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR 1986-01-01 to 1995-12-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II IGBP NPP Output from Terrestrial Biogeochemistry Models 1 NOT APPLICABLE NOT APPLICABLE 1931-01-01 to 1987-12-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II Leaf Area Index (LAI) from Field Measurements, 1932-2000 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR 1932-01-01 to 2000-12-31

N: 71.3 S: -54.5 E: 172.75 W: -156.67

CSV
ISLSCP II MODIS (Collection 4) IGBP Land Cover, 2000-2001 1 Terra MODIS 2000-10-01 to 2001-10-01

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II Monthly Snow-Free Albedo, 1982-1998, and Background Soil Reflectance 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION, Terra, NOAA-14 STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR 1982-01-01 to 1998-12-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II NOAA 5-year Average Monthly Snow-free Albedo from AVHRR 1 FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR 1985-04-01 to 1991-03-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II Northern Hemisphere Monthly Snow Cover Extent 1 NOT APPLICABLE NOT APPLICABLE 1986-01-01 to 1995-12-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II Potential Natural Vegetation Cover 1 NOAA-14, Terra, FIELD INVESTIGATION AVHRR, MODIS 1992-04-01 to 1993-04-01

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

ASCII
ISLSCP II Sea Surface Temperature 1 NOT APPLICABLE NOT APPLICABLE 1971-01-01 to 2000-12-31

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

Shapefile
ISLSCP II Total Plant-Available Soil Water Storage Capacity of the Rooting Zone 1 FIXED OBSERVATION STATIONS, FIELD INVESTIGATION EDDY CORRELATION DEVICES, IR CO2 ANALYZER 1987-01-01 to 1988-12-31

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

ASCII
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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
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
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