This Climate Data Record (CDR) combines datasets for Leaf Area Index (LAI)
and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), two
biophysical variables that can be used to evaluate vegetation stress,
forecast agricultural yields, and other modeling and resource management
applications. LAI tracks the one-sided green leaf area per unit of ground
surface area, while FAPAR quantifies the solar radiation absorbed by plants
within the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) spectral region.
The LAI/FAPAR CDR generates a daily product on a .05° by .05° grid.
The data is generated from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite
(VIIRS) sensors from 2014 onward.
Known issues with this dataset include:
TIMEOFDAY variable contains values that are too large by 1 day
Latitude values are not correctly associated with the center of
the grid cell, error is < 0.002 degrees
Longitude values are not correctly associated with the center of
the grid cell, error is < 0.02 degrees
Provider's note: the orbital drift of N-19 (the last NOAA satellite
carrying the AVHRR sensor) began to severely degrade the retrieved
product quality. Therefore, VIIRS is now the primary sensor being used for
these products from 2014-present.
Bands
Pixel Size 5566 meters
Bands
Name
Min
Max
Scale
Pixel Size
Description
LAI
0*
6205*
0.001
meters
Leaf area index
FAPAR
0*
896*
0.001
meters
Fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation
QA
meters
Quality control bit flags
Bitmask for QA
Bits 0-1: Quality control
0: Ok
1: Input flags as cloudy
2: Invalid input
3: Output out of range
Bits 2-4: Associated class
1: Needleleaf forest
2: Broadleaf forest
4: Grassland & croplands & non vegetated
5: Evergreen broadleaf forest
6: Water
Bit 5: BRDF corrected
0: No
1: Yes
Bits 6-7: Polygon test
0: In polygon
1: Not in polygon
2: Not tested (water/cloudy)
* estimated min or max value
Image Properties
Image Properties
Name
Type
Description
status
STRING
'provisional' or 'permanent'
Terms of Use
Terms of Use
The NOAA CDR Program's official distribution point for CDRs is NOAA's
National Climatic Data Center which provides sustained, open access and
active data management of the CDR packages and related information in
keeping with the United States' open data policies and practices as
described in the President's Memorandum on "Open Data Policy" and pursuant
to the Executive Order of May 9, 2013, "Making Open and Machine Readable
the New Default for Government Information". In line with these policies,
the CDR data sets are nonproprietary, publicly available, and no
restrictions are placed upon their use. For more information, see the
Fair Use of NOAA's CDR Data Sets, Algorithms and Documentation
pdf.
Citations
Citations:
Cite as: Claverie, Martin; Vermote, Eric; Justice, Chris; Csiszar, Ivan;
Myneni, Ranga; Baret, Frederic; Masuoka, Ed; Wolfe, Robert; Ray, James P.;
NOAA CDR Program. (2023): NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of VIIRS Leaf Area
Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation
(FAPAR), Version 1. [indicate subset used]. NOAA National Centers for
Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.25921/9x3m-0e02.
This Climate Data Record (CDR) combines datasets for Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), two biophysical variables that can be used to evaluate vegetation stress, forecast agricultural yields, and other modeling and resource management applications. LAI tracks the one-sided green leaf area per unit …
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis dataset, provided by NOAA, offers a Climate Data Record (CDR) of daily Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) data from 2014 to 2025.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe LAI and FAPAR data, derived from VIIRS sensors, are valuable for assessing vegetation stress, forecasting agricultural output, and other land-based modeling applications.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe data is provided on a 0.05° by 0.05° grid, with each pixel representing 5566 meters.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can explore and analyze this dataset using Google Earth Engine, accessing it through the \u003ccode\u003eee.ImageCollection("NOAA/CDR/VIIRS/LAI_FAPAR/V1")\u003c/code\u003e snippet.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe dataset is open access, and available under NOAA's open data policy, and there are some minor known issues with the dataset, including issues with the \u003ccode\u003eTIMEOFDAY\u003c/code\u003e, Latitude, and Longitude variables.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Dataset Availability\n: 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z--2025-07-12T00:00:00Z\n\nDataset Provider\n:\n\n\n [NOAA](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records/leaf-area-index-and-fapar)\n\nCadence\n: 1 Day\n\nTags\n:\n[cdr](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/cdr) [daily](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/daily) [fapar](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/fapar) [lai](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/lai) [land](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/land) [noaa](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/noaa) [plant-productivity](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/plant-productivity) [viirs](/earth-engine/datasets/tags/viirs) \n\nDescription \nThis Climate Data Record (CDR) combines datasets for Leaf Area Index (LAI)\nand Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), two\nbiophysical variables that can be used to evaluate vegetation stress,\nforecast agricultural yields, and other modeling and resource management\napplications. LAI tracks the one-sided green leaf area per unit of ground\nsurface area, while FAPAR quantifies the solar radiation absorbed by plants\nwithin the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) spectral region.\nThe LAI/FAPAR CDR generates a daily product on a .05° by .05° grid.\nThe data is generated from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite\n(VIIRS) sensors from 2014 onward.\n\nKnown issues with this dataset include:\n\n- TIMEOFDAY variable contains values that are too large by 1 day\n\n- Latitude values are not correctly associated with the center of\n the grid cell, error is \\\u003c 0.002 degrees\n\n- Longitude values are not correctly associated with the center of\n the grid cell, error is \\\u003c 0.02 degrees\n\nSee [technical note from the data provider](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/sds/cdr/CDRs/Leaf_Area_Index_and_FAPAR/VIIRS/AlgorithmDescriptionVIIRS_01B-20c.pdf).\n\nProvider's note: the orbital drift of N-19 (the last NOAA satellite\ncarrying the AVHRR sensor) began to severely degrade the retrieved\nproduct quality. Therefore, VIIRS is now the primary sensor being used for\nthese products from 2014-present.\n\nBands\n\n\n**Pixel Size**\n\n5566 meters\n\n**Bands**\n\n| Name | Min | Max | Scale | Description |\n|---------|-----|--------|-------|------------------------------------------------------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|\n| `LAI` | 0\\* | 6205\\* | 0.001 | Leaf area index |\n| `FAPAR` | 0\\* | 896\\* | 0.001 | Fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation |\n| `QA` | | | | Quality control bit flags |\n| Bitmask for QA - Bits 0-1: Quality control - 0: Ok - 1: Input flags as cloudy - 2: Invalid input - 3: Output out of range - Bits 2-4: Associated class - 1: Needleleaf forest - 2: Broadleaf forest - 4: Grassland \\& croplands \\& non vegetated - 5: Evergreen broadleaf forest - 6: Water - Bit 5: BRDF corrected - 0: No - 1: Yes - Bits 6-7: Polygon test - 0: In polygon - 1: Not in polygon - 2: Not tested (water/cloudy) ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||\n\n\\* estimated min or max value\n\nImage Properties\n\n**Image Properties**\n\n| Name | Type | Description |\n|--------|--------|------------------------------|\n| status | STRING | 'provisional' or 'permanent' |\n\nTerms of Use\n\n**Terms of Use**\n\nThe NOAA CDR Program's official distribution point for CDRs is NOAA's\nNational Climatic Data Center which provides sustained, open access and\nactive data management of the CDR packages and related information in\nkeeping with the United States' open data policies and practices as\ndescribed in the President's Memorandum on \"Open Data Policy\" and pursuant\nto the Executive Order of May 9, 2013, \"Making Open and Machine Readable\nthe New Default for Government Information\". In line with these policies,\nthe CDR data sets are nonproprietary, publicly available, and no\nrestrictions are placed upon their use. For more information, see the\n[Fair Use of NOAA's CDR Data Sets, Algorithms and Documentation](https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/sds/cdr/CDRs/Aerosol_Optical_Thickness/UseAgreement_01B-04.pdf)\npdf.\n\nCitations \nCitations:\n\n- Cite as: Claverie, Martin; Vermote, Eric; Justice, Chris; Csiszar, Ivan;\n Myneni, Ranga; Baret, Frederic; Masuoka, Ed; Wolfe, Robert; Ray, James P.;\n NOAA CDR Program. (2023): NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of VIIRS Leaf Area\n Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation\n (FAPAR), Version 1. \\[indicate subset used\\]. NOAA National Centers for\n Environmental Information. [https://doi.org/10.25921/9x3m-0e02](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/metadata/geoportal/rest/metadata/item/gov.noaa.ncdc:C01706/html).\n\nDOIs\n\n- \u003chttps://doi.org/10.25921/9x3m-0e02\u003e\n\nExplore with Earth Engine **Important:** Earth Engine is a platform for petabyte-scale scientific analysis and visualization of geospatial datasets, both for public benefit and for business and government users. Earth Engine is free to use for research, education, and nonprofit use. To get started, please [register for Earth Engine access.](https://console.cloud.google.com/earth-engine)\n\nCode Editor (JavaScript) \n\n```javascript\nvar dataset = ee.ImageCollection('NOAA/CDR/VIIRS/LAI_FAPAR/V1')\n .filter(ee.Filter.date('2018-02-01', '2018-03-01'));\nvar leafAreaIndex = dataset.select('LAI');\nvar leafAreaIndexVis = {\n min: 0.0,\n max: 4000.0,\n palette: ['3b0200', '977705', 'ca9f06', 'ffca09', '006a03', '003b02'],\n};\nMap.setCenter(20, 24.5, 2);\nMap.addLayer(leafAreaIndex, leafAreaIndexVis, 'Leaf Area Index');\n```\n[Open in Code Editor](https://code.earthengine.google.com/?scriptPath=Examples:Datasets/NOAA/NOAA_CDR_VIIRS_LAI_FAPAR_V1) \n[NOAA CDR VIIRS LAI FAPAR: Leaf Area Index and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Version 1](/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/NOAA_CDR_VIIRS_LAI_FAPAR_V1) \nThis Climate Data Record (CDR) combines datasets for Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR), two biophysical variables that can be used to evaluate vegetation stress, forecast agricultural yields, and other modeling and resource management applications. LAI tracks the one-sided green leaf area per unit ... \nNOAA/CDR/VIIRS/LAI_FAPAR/V1, cdr,daily,fapar,lai,land,noaa,plant-productivity,viirs \n2014-01-01T00:00:00Z/2025-07-12T00:00:00Z \n-90 -180 90 180 \nGoogle Earth Engine \nhttps://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets\n\n- [https://doi.org/10.25921/9x3m-0e02](https://doi.org/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/climate-data-records/leaf-area-index-and-fapar)\n- [https://doi.org/10.25921/9x3m-0e02](https://doi.org/https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/NOAA_CDR_VIIRS_LAI_FAPAR_V1)"]]
