| CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENTS
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Measurements > Land >
Vegetation
  | Changes in land cover are important aspects of global environmental change, with implications for ecosystems, biogeochemical fluxes and global climate. Land cover change affects climate through a range of factors from albedo to emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of biomass. Deforestation increases the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases in the atmosphere. | |
| Detailed Measurement | Description* | Instruments | Timeline |
Above Ground Biomass (AGB)
Link:   | Total amount of vegetation in a reference area - Physical unit: [ t/ha (tons/hectare) ] - Accuracy unit: [ t/ha ] | 19 instruments |  |
| Chlorophyll Fluorescence from Vegetation on Land | Solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence occurs during photosynthesis. It exhibits a strong linear correlation with terrestrial gross primary production (GPP). Direct global space borne observations of the fluorescence emission provide the same or better GPP estimations as those derived from traditional remotely-sensed vegetation indices using ancillary data and model assumptions. | 4 instruments | |
Land cover
Link: | Processed from land surface imagery by assigning identified cluster(s) within a given area to specific classes of objects - Accuracy expressed as number of classes. Actually [ classes-1 ] is used, so that smaller figure corresponds to better performance, as usual - Physical unit [ Classes ], Accuracy unit [ Classes-1 ] | 43 instruments | |
Leaf Area Index (LAI)
Link: | LAI is the total one-sided area of photosynthetic tissue per unit ground surface area - Physical unit [ % ], Accuracy unit [ % ] | 15 instruments | |
| Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) | Difference between maximum (in NIR) and minimum (around the Red) vegetation reflectance, normalised to the summation. Representative of total biomass, supportive for computing LAI if not directly measured - Physical unit: [ % ] - Accuracy unit: [ % ]. | 26 instruments | |
| Soil type | Result of the classification of different types of soil within a vegetated area - Accuracy expressed as number of classes. Actually [ classes-1 ] is used, so that smaller figure corresponds to better performance, as usual. | 8 instruments | |
| Vegetation Canopy (cover) | Fraction of the ground area covered by tree crowns in %. | 7 instruments | |
| Vegetation Canopy (height) | Vertical projection of an area covered by tree crowns in meters. | 4 instruments | |
| Vegetation Cover | Fraction of vegetated land in an area - Physical unit: [ % ] - Accuracy unit: [ % ]. | 9 instruments | |
| Vegetation type | Result of the classification of different types of vegetation within a vegetated area - Accuracy expressed as number of classes. Actually [ classes-1 ] is used, so that smaller figure corresponds to better performance, as usual. | 67 instruments | |
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* Description adapted from WMO.
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