Integrating Landsat with MODIS Products for Vegetation Monitoring - Satellite-based Applications on Climate Change - page 239

Table 16.1 Corresponding bandwidths of Landsat TM/ETM+ and MODIS
Landsat TM/ETM+ TERRA/AQU MODIS

B1: 0.45-0.52 B3: 0.459-0.479

B2: 0.53-0.61 B4: 0.545-0.565

B3: 0.63-0.69 B1: 0.620-0.670

B4: 0.78-0.90 B2: 0.841-0.876

B5: 1.55-1.75 B6: 1.628-1.652

B7: 2.08-2.35 B7: 2.105-2.155

Landsat has been widely used in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional
planning, education, mapping, and global change research (Townshend et al.
1991 ; Loveland and Shaw 1996 ). For example, the US Department of Agriculture
(USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) uses Landsat and other
medium resolution data to generate annual crop data layer (CDL) for each state in
the United States ( www2 ). The USGS EROS produced the National Land Cover
Data (NLCD) on 2001 and 2006 based on Landsat TM and ETM+ data ( www3 ).
More recently, many time series data analysis approaches have been developed and
applied to Landsat image stack for detecting surface changes such as mapping
forest disturbance and regrowth in past four decades (Masek et al. 2008 ; Huang
et al. 2009 ; Kennedy et al. 2010 ). Projects funded by different countries/agencies
are using Landsat data to map land cover and land use changes at continental or
global scale. More global Landsat data products and applications can be expected in
upcoming years (Gong et al. 2013 ).
The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a key instru-
ment launched into Earth orbit by NASA on board the Terra satellite in 1999 and
then onboard the Aqua satellite in 2002. MODIS instrument provides 36 spectral
bands ranging from visible, near-infrared bands to thermal infrared bands in
different spatial resolutions (red and near-infrared bands at 250 m, 5 spectral
bands at 500 m, and 29 other bands at 1 km). Table 16.1 lists the similar bandwidths
for Landsat and MODIS. Each Landsat band has a corresponding MODIS band
except that MODIS bandwidths are narrower.
MODIS is designed to provide measurements in global dynamics for land,
ocean, and atmosphere (Justice et al. 2002 ). MODIS data are well calibrated, and
data products have been validated with independent field measurements ( www4 ).
MODIS products provide extensive quality assessment (QA) data layers to flag data
quality associated with input data and algorithm. MODIS data products have been
used in many applications and help to improve our understanding on climate
changes, vegetation dynamics, weather forecasting, etc.
In general, Landsat data provide sufficient spatial details (30 m for TM/ETM+) for
monitoring land surface and changes (Townshend and Justice 2002 ; Loveland et al.
2008 ;Gutmanetal. 2008 ;Gowardetal. 2008 ). However, the 16-day revisit cycle has
limited its use for studying global biophysical processes, which evolve rapidly during
the growing season. Meanwhile, MODIS sensors aboard the NASA EOS Terra and
Aqua satellites provide daily global observations which are valuable for capturing
rapid surface changes. However, the spatial resolutions of 250-1,000 m may not be