Satellite Image of Land Vegetation Index
WorldPhysical EnvironmentOur lives depend upon plants and trees. They feed us and give us clothes. They absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen we need to breathe. Plants even provide many of our medicines and building materials. When the plants and trees around us change, these changes can affect our health, our environment, and our economy. For these reasons, and more, scientists monitor plant life around the world. Today, scientists use NASA satellites to map the "greenness" of all Earth's lands. These vegetation index maps show where and how much green leaf vegetation was growing for the time period shown.
NASAA map shows the global distribution of vegetation density using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (N D V I) ranging from negative 0.1 to 0.9.
Areas with the lowest N D V I values, ranging from negative 0.1 to negative 0.001, are marked in very light green and include much of Greenland and Iceland. Regions with N D V I values from 0 to 0.199, shown in light green, cover parts of northern Canada, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden), and parts of the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran). Areas receiving N D V I values from 0.2 to 0.399, highlighted in medium green, include central parts of the United States, parts of western Europe (France, Spain), and central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan). Regions with N D V I values from 0.4 to 0.599, marked in dark green, cover parts of southern Canada, western and central Russia, and parts of India. Very dark green, indicating N D V I values from 0.6 to 0.799, include large parts of central and eastern Canada, parts of Brazil, and parts of China and Southeast Asia. The highest N D V I values, from 0.8 to 0.9, represented in darkest green, are found in the Amazon Basin in South America (Brazil, Peru, Colombia), central Africa (Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo), and parts of Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea).
Satellite Image of Land Vegetation Index | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-0.1 - -0.001 | 0.0 - 0.199 | 0.2 - 0.399 | 0.4 - 0.599 | 0.6 - 0.799 | 0.8 - 0.9 | |
| 4.75% | 20.1% | 18.7% | 57.0% | |||
| 4.82% | 12.1% | 70.2% | ||||
| 49.2% | 33.1% | 18.4% | 8.97% | |||
| 29.2% | 12.8% | 13.2% | 32.2% | 17.0% | ||
| 3.79% | 2.50% | 13.3% | 52.2% | 28.9% | ||
| 14.7% | 9.80% | 13.8% | 15.9% | 68.8% | 12.3% | |
| 2.95% | 22.4% | 12.3% | 24.3% | 30.9% | 34.3% | |
| 82.2% | 19.0% | 1.90% | 26.2% | |||
| 2.30% | 7.22% | 14.7% | 16.6% | 43.6% | 11.3% | |
| 19.8% | 17.1% | 40.8% | 20.2% | 4.66% | ||
| 5.41% | 33.8% | 52.1% | ||||
| 93.6% | 12.2% | 17.8% | 4.74% | 3.40% | ||
| 39.9% | 28.3% | 28.1% | 27.6% | 21.3% | ||