Satellite passive microwave remote sensing for monitoring global land surface phenology

Vegetation phenology characterizes seasonal life-cycle events that influence the carbon cycle and land–atmosphere water and energy exchange. We analyzed global phenology cycles over a six year record (2003–2008) using satellite passive microwave remote sensing based Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) retrievals derived from daily time series brightness temperature (Tb) measurements from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on EOS (AMSR-E) and other ancillary data inputs. The VOD parameter derives vegetation canopy attenuation at a given microwave frequency (18.7 GHz) and varies with canopy height, density, structure and water content. An error sensitivity analysis indicates that the retrieval algorithm can resolve the VOD seasonal cycle over a majority of global vegetated land areas. The VOD results corresponded favorably (p