Release of Global Land Vegetation Monitoring VRE

On 9 March 2009, the Global Land Vegetation Monitoring (GVM) Virtual Research Environment (VRE) was released. This VRE is available through the project portal: http://portal.d4science.research-infrastructures.eu.
The Global Land Vegetation Monitoring VRE offers easy access to satellite images of vegetative land cover allowing to dynamically store and share resources from heterogeneous collections of data including Earth Science data and products.

The principal features of this VRE are:

extended search over collections including geospatial search, Google search and browsing;
dynamic creation and sharing of different annotations features with scientifically trusted users;
user interactive template and reporting creation;
dynamic metadata access and consulting.

Through this dedicated research environment, scientists can access many different Earth Observation data sources, including:

ESA special issues Living Planet Programme and Earth Observation Handbooks;
European Environmental Agency (EEA) technical reports;
European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Images;
Landsat 7 true colours and false colours data set;
Environmental Satellite (Envisat) Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) and Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data;
Envisat MERIS Global Vegetation Index (MGVI) products.

The research environment benefits and takes advantage of image metadata and schema to provide advanced search facilities. The VRE was designed to retrieve, share and save relevant sets of images with other users. It also has the potential to greatly reduce the ‘time to client’ of satellite images, as it shortens information retrieval steps and allows for the storage of information retrieval paths which can contain dynamic objects that automatically refresh.

Vegetative land cover is an important variable in many earth system processes. General circulation and carbon exchange models, important in climate change and biodiversity research, require vegetative cover data. Vegetation land cover is also essential to predict agriculture production, such as of crops and livestock. Easy access to land cover data is essential to predict food shortages and anticipate emergencies.
Satellite images are the only global tool available for measuring and mapping the density of vegetation across the earth's landscapes. They collect information on one of the key vital signs of earth’s vegetation; the total green leaf area for a given area. Without knowing the total leaf area, scientists cannot determine how much photosynthesis is taking place, what the agricultural production will be, how much water will be stored and released by an ecosystem, how much leaf litter it will generate, etc.. They also help scientists understand the flow of energy among the various layers of vegetation, the atmosphere and the ground which, in turn, affects climate. The same images are also essential for forests ecosystem monitoring as they reveal burnt areas, forests extension, tree coverage and biomass.

The GVM VRE aims to provide satellite imagery data for easy consumption by other applications, either running within the e-Infrastructure, or using a variety of data-exchange protocols.

More information: Global Land Vegetation Monitoring

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