MODIS land cover and LAI collection 4 product quality across nine sites in the western hemisphere

Warren B. Cohen; Thomas K. Maiersperger; David P. Turner; William D. Ritts; Dirk Pflugmacher; Robert E. Kennedy; Alan Kirschbaum; Steven W. Running; Marcos Costa; Stith T. Gower

doi:10.1109/TGRS.2006.876026

MODIS land cover and LAI collection 4 product quality across nine sites in the western hemisphere

Warren B. Cohen, Thomas K. Maiersperger, David P. Turner, William D. Ritts, Dirk Pflugmacher, Robert E. Kennedy, Alan Kirschbaum, Steven W. Running, Marcos Costa, Stith T. Gower

W. A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

121 Scopus citations

Abstract

Global maps of land cover and leaf area index (LAI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) reflectance data are an important resource in studies of global change, but errors in these must be characterized and well understood. Product validation requires careful scaling from ground and related measurements to a grain commensurate with MODIS products. We present an updated BigFoot project protocol for developing 25-m validation data layers over 49-km² study areas. Results from comparisons of MODIS and BigFoot land cover and LAI products at nine contrasting sites are reported. In terms of proportional coverage, MODIS and BigFoot land cover were in close agreement at six sites. The largest differences were at low tree cover evergreen needleleaf sites and at an Arctic tundra site where the MODIS product overestimated woody cover proportions. At low leaf biomass sites there was reasonable agreement between MODIS and BigFoot LAI products, but there was not a particular MODIS LAI algorithm pathway that consistently compared most favorably. At high leaf biomass sites, MODIS LAI was generally overpredicted by a significant amount. For evergreen needleleaf sites, LAI seasonally was exaggerated by MODIS. Our results suggest incremental improvement from Collection 3 to Collection 4 MODIS products, with some remaining problems that need to be addressed.

Original language	English
Article number	1645284
Pages (from-to)	1843-1857
Number of pages	15
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Volume	44
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2006.876026
State	Published - Jul 2006

Funding

Manuscript received October 15, 2004; revised January 16, 2006. This work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Terrestrial Ecology Program. W. B. Cohen and R. E. Kennedy are with the Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA (e-mail: [email protected]). T. K. Maiersperger, D. P. Turner, W. D. Ritts, D. Pflugmacher, and A. Kirschbaum are with the Department of Forest Science, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA. S. W. Running is with the School of Forestry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812 USA. M. Costa is with the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa MG 36570-000, Brazil. S. T. Gower is with the Department of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 USA. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TGRS.2006.876026

Funders	Funder number
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Keywords

Land cover
Landsat
Leaf area index (lai)
Moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (modis)
Scaling
Validation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1109/TGRS.2006.876026

Cite this

Cohen, W. B., Maiersperger, T. K., Turner, D. P., Ritts, W. D., Pflugmacher, D., Kennedy, R. E., Kirschbaum, A., Running, S. W., Costa, M., & Gower, S. T. (2006). MODIS land cover and LAI collection 4 product quality across nine sites in the western hemisphere. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 44(7), 1843-1857. Article 1645284. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2006.876026

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AU - Pflugmacher, Dirk

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AB - Global maps of land cover and leaf area index (LAI) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) reflectance data are an important resource in studies of global change, but errors in these must be characterized and well understood. Product validation requires careful scaling from ground and related measurements to a grain commensurate with MODIS products. We present an updated BigFoot project protocol for developing 25-m validation data layers over 49-km2 study areas. Results from comparisons of MODIS and BigFoot land cover and LAI products at nine contrasting sites are reported. In terms of proportional coverage, MODIS and BigFoot land cover were in close agreement at six sites. The largest differences were at low tree cover evergreen needleleaf sites and at an Arctic tundra site where the MODIS product overestimated woody cover proportions. At low leaf biomass sites there was reasonable agreement between MODIS and BigFoot LAI products, but there was not a particular MODIS LAI algorithm pathway that consistently compared most favorably. At high leaf biomass sites, MODIS LAI was generally overpredicted by a significant amount. For evergreen needleleaf sites, LAI seasonally was exaggerated by MODIS. Our results suggest incremental improvement from Collection 3 to Collection 4 MODIS products, with some remaining problems that need to be addressed.

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MODIS land cover and LAI collection 4 product quality across nine sites in the western hemisphere

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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