****************************************************************************************
Canada 1-km, 10-day, SPOT/VEGETATION composites for growing season 1998-2004

Abstract:

As part of the climate change research, data from the SPOT/VEGETATION 
instrument are systematically corrected for period 1998-2004 and provided 
in this archive. The VGT archive contains observations acquired by the 
VEGETATION sensors 1 and 2 onboard SPOT 4 and 5 satellites. Initial data 
type 10-day S10 composites provided by CNES and pre-processed at VITO 
(Belgium) in full resolution (1km) were re-projected into standard LCC 
map projection and further corrected for BRDF effect and cloud contamination. 
Growing seasons 1998-2004 are presented with twenty 10-day composites from 
April 11, to October 31. Each composite contains four at-surface apparent 
reflectance bands: blue (0.43-0.47 mm), red (0.61-0.68 mm), near infrared 
(0.78-0.89 mm), and shortwave infrared (1.58-1.75mm) and two data layers 
containing NDVI and Cloud mask. The 10-day composite data were reprocessed 
following CCRS post-seasonal correction. This improved product is used in 
land cover and climate change studies to generate various high-level products 
such as Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) and Leaf Area 
Index (LAI).


Georeferencing:

Upper left geographic: 177d17'32.31" W; 66d54'22.82" N
Lower right geographic: 62d32'49.65" W; 34d18'05.61" N
Upper left geocoded: -2600000.000 E; 10500000.000 N
Lower right geocoded: 3100000.000 E; 5700000.000 N
True origin: 95d00'00.0000"W; 0d00'00.0000"N

Pixel Information: Each pixel value is contained in a 2-byte (16-bit unsigned 
integer); pixel size, horizontal resolution: 1000m; pixel size, vertical 
 resolution: 1000m
Image Size: 5700 pixels x 4800 lines



Purpose:
The VGT composites are surface reflectance measurements free of residual errors 
(i.e., effects not representing the surface under uniform illumination and 
viewing conditions) as possible.  Measurements are normalized to nadir-viewed 
images obtained under cloud-free conditions. The data sets portray land surface 
features only, without being obscured by interfering effects.  The product is 
used in various land cover, environmental monitoring and climate change studies, 
for generating specialized spatial data products such as detailed land cover and 
biophysical parameter maps of Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation 
(FPAR), Leaf Area Index (LAI) required for vegetated land cover studies.  
(http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/rd/apps/landcov/veg/emveg_e.html)

****************************************************************************************
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________