Monitoring global vegetation dynamics with ERS-1 wind scatterometer data

ERS-1 wind scatterometer (WSC) data is analysed over a wide range of terrain types for the period May 1992-April 1994. Comparison is made with Global Vegetation Index (GVI) data for the monitoring of vegetation dynamics. Results show that WSC data display a well-pronounced seasonality over most vegetated surfaces. The highest sensibility to vegetation dynamics is found over semi-arid regions and boreal zones. In these two cases, there is a marked seasonality in environmental parameters which is well depicted by sigma(0) temporal profiles. However, the sensibility of the ERS-1 response is much less pronounced over densely vegetated surfaces. In yspite of its low spatial resolution, the usefulness of a C-band scatterometer for monitoring vegetation dynamics is shown.