Mapping Periodic Patterns of Global Vegetation Based on Spectral Analysis of NDVI Time Series

Vegetation seasonality assessment through remote sensing data is crucial to understand ecosystem responses to climatic variations and human activities at large-scales. Whereas the study of the timing of phenological events showed significant advances, their recurrence patterns at different periodici...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2019-11, Vol.11 (21), p.2497
Main Authors: Recuero, Laura, Litago, Javier, Pinzón, Jorge E., Huesca, Margarita, Moyano, Maria C., Palacios-Orueta, Alicia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Amplitudes
Annual cycles
Arid regions
Arid zones
bioclimate
Climate
Datasets
Fourier analysis
land surface phenology
ndvi
Normalized difference vegetative index
Northern Hemisphere
Oscillations
Periodic variations
Periodicity
periodogram
Phenology
pluri-annual cycles
Remote sensing
Seasonal variations
seasonality
Spectral analysis
Spectrum analysis
stability
Stability analysis
Statistical analysis
Time series
Vegetation
vegetation dynamics
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Summary:Vegetation seasonality assessment through remote sensing data is crucial to understand ecosystem responses to climatic variations and human activities at large-scales. Whereas the study of the timing of phenological events showed significant advances, their recurrence patterns at different periodicities has not been widely study, especially at global scale. In this work, we describe vegetation oscillations by a novel quantitative approach based on the spectral analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series. A new set of global periodicity indicators permitted to identify different seasonal patterns regarding the intra-annual cycles (the number, amplitude, and stability) and to evaluate the existence of pluri-annual cycles, even in those regions with noisy or low NDVI. Most of vegetated land surface (93.18%) showed one intra-annual cycle whereas double and triple cycles were found in 5.58% of the land surface, mainly in tropical and arid regions along with agricultural areas. In only 1.24% of the pixels, the seasonality was not statistically significant. The highest values of amplitude and stability were found at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere whereas lowest values corresponded to tropical and arid regions, with the latter showing more pluri-annual cycles. The indicator maps compiled in this work provide highly relevant and practical information to advance in assessing global vegetation dynamics in the context of global change.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs11212497