Download high res NDVI imagery

Question

I'm trying to find a good source of NDVI imagery, but I'm struggling to find proper high res imagery, particularly for northern Europe.

Does anyone have references to high res imagery, that is frequently updated?

I've tried looking at Landsat 8 imagery, using the EarthExporer, but there's no imagery in the Vegetation datasets for Europe.

I'd like to find imagery in the 50-100m/px resolution, but I don't know if that's possible without being charged an arm and a leg for it?

If no pre-processed NDVI imagery is available, it would be fine to get raw imagery that I could use to process NDVI imagery from.

Answer 1

I don't know about any European database of ready-made high resolution NDVI, but it's relatively easy to create it from raw Landsat imagery in 30m resolution. Access to the Landsat archive is free of charge (only registration needed) via EarthExplorer web service link. In the Data Sets tab, expand "Landsat Archive" list and check L8 checkboxes for contemporary imagery or L4-5 TM for historical imagery. After downloading, you can calculate NDVI using any software with raster calculator capabilities. A lightweight and relatively easy to use example is MultiSpec - website and NDVI tutorial. Pay attention to band numbers - use 5 as NIR and 4 as Red in Landsat 8, or 4 as NIR and 3 as Red in older Landsat (4,5,7).

Answer 2

Free method :

The High-resolution images are not available for free unless you are part of a body of research and teaching. You have two options:

• Free access to the results of NDVI already calculated. For example : http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MOD13A2_E_NDVI&date=2014-06-01
• Free access to MODIS imagery (but not high res... it's 250 meters): http://pekko.geog.umd.edu/usda/test/ ( /!\ Pay attention to the terms of use).

Pay method :

If you can afford you can buy high resolutions pictures like SPOT images at http://www.astrium-geo.com/

Answer 3

This depends what you are trying to do with the data, i.e. what really matters to you? Question is which one you need more, high spatial or high temporal resolution since it's hard to get both. In high temporal resolution I think the MODIS or AVHRR products mentioned above will be the choice, but if high spatial resolution is a must, then I think Landasat 8 data is the best option here. As far as I know it is the highest (30 m) resolution optical satellite data freely available and frequently updating. Although you need to preprocess it and calculate the index yourself, at least for now (see link at the end of the text). Landsat's temporal resolution is 2 weeks at best and this can, and in most cases will be much longer due cloud conditions, which are a problem in northern Europe.

However, you can also try to combine these products, but it can get I bit tricky (I've never tried myself) :)

See also this document regarding Landsat SVI's.