Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content
  • Feedback

    • DSCOVR EPIC Level 2 Vegetation Earth System Data Record (VESDR), Version 2

    Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

    DSCOVR_EPIC_L2_VESDR_02 is the Deep Space Climate ObserVatoRy (DSCOVR) Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) Level 2 Vegetation Earth System Data Record (VESDR), Version 2 data product. It provides Leaf Area Index (LAI) and diurnal courses of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Sunlit Leaf Area Index (SLAI), Fraction of incident Photosynthetically Active Radiation (400-700 nm) absorbed by the vegetation (FPAR), Directional Area Scattering Function (DASF), Earth Reflector Type Index (ERTI) and Canopy Scattering Coefficient at 443 nm, 551 nm, 680 nm and 779 nm. The VESDR files also include Solar Zenith Angle (SZA), Solar Azimuthal Angle (SAA), View Zenith (VZA), and Azimuthal (VAA) angles at the same temporal and spatial resolutions. The parameters are projected on eight regional 10 km SIN grids and available at 65 to 110 min temporal frequency. The version 2 VESDR product is generated from the upstream DSCOVR EPIC L2 MAIAC (Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction version 2) surface reflectance product. FPAR, LAI, and SLAI help monitor variability and change in global vegetation due to climate and anthropogenic influences, modeling climate, carbon, and water cycles and improving forecasting of near-surface weather. DASF provides information critical to accounting for structural contributions to measurements of leaf biochemistry from remote sensing. The canopy scattering coefficient is the Fraction of intercepted radiation reflected from or diffusely transmitted through the vegetation. This parameter is strongly correlated with leaf albedo, which depends on leaf biochemical constituents. We also provide two ancillary science data products: "Version 2 10 km Land Cover Type" and "Version 2 Distribution of Land Cover Types within 10 km EPIC pixel." The products were derived from 500m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land cover type 3 product (MCDLCHKM), which was generated from 2008, 2009, and 2010 land cover products (MCD12Q1, v051). A detailed description of the VESDR and ancillary science data products can be found in "VESDR Science Data Product Guide, version 2". Section "USER'S GUIDE" provides links to this document as well as to the two ancillary science data products.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
    Publisher NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.5067/EPIC/DSCOVR/L2_VESDR.002
    Data Last Modified 2025-09-11
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 2564264f-75b5-41c1-8ffa-1e5a6c63795b
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/products/vegetable
    Old Spatial "CARTESIAN",{"Boundary":{"Points":{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":180},{"Latitude":90,"Longitude":-180},{"Latitude":-90,"Longitude":-180}}}, Minimum Altitude, 1474000 km
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash 9a3d4fd28ba5d848f3049694f3f6350e70a550c3726872f9452089c53e761b0e
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2015-06-13/2015-06-13

    Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.