Spatial and temporal accuracy of coarse resolution products of NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data

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Abstract
Coarse resolution products of maximum value composite NDVI data, derived from the AVHRR on board the NOAA-7, -9 and -11 series of polar-orbiting satellites, are becoming increasingly available. One such product is the ARTEMIS African decadal NDVT data set, available on CD-ROM for the years 1981 to 1991. These data have inherent spatial and temporal errors which arise as a result of the sampling procedures involved in their generation. This paper describes the way in which the ARTEMIS NDVI data are produced. It then describes the spatial and temporal accuracy of the data, estimated for a study area in East Africa, in terms of: 1. their spatial resolution, 2. pixel locational errors, 3. sampling biases and systematic errors introduced during the production of the data, and 4. the presence of signal noise in multi-temporal profiles of the data. The paper concludes that these errors may prove a considerable limitation to the usefulness of the data for distinguishing specific habitats on the ground over small study areas, and that in the further development of applications for these coarse resolution data sets, these errors must be taken into consideration.

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