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Vegetation Health Index

Data source provider

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Satellite Applications and Research (NOAA STAR)

Use cases

Exposure quantification, Financial stability monitoring, Product development, Scenario analysis, Stress testing

Data group

Climate-related index and scoring

Metric Type

Physical vulnerability

Methodology/ Standard / Classification/ Taxonomy / Reference

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Satellite Applications and Research (NOAA STAR)

Unit (e.g. CO2)

The VH indices range from 0 to 100 characterizing changes in vegetation conditions from extremely poor (0) to excellent (100). Fair conditions are coded by green colour (50), which changes to brown and red when conditions deteriorate and to blue when they improve. The VH reflects indirectly a combination of chlorophyll and moisture content in the vegetation health and also changes in thermal conditions at the surface.

Dimension (e.g. Sector, Customer)

By Location

Time horizon 

Backward-Looking

Frequency

Latest update

Time series

1981-2023

Accessibility

Public

Observation on data availability/gaps

The STAR Vegetation Health Index is a product from NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA-NESDIS) Global and Regional Vegetation Heath (VH) system estimating vegetation health, moisture condition, and thermal condition. VH products can be used as proxy data for monitoring vegetation health, drought, soil saturation, moisture and thermal conditions, fire risk, greenness of vegetation cover, vegetation fraction, leaf area index, start/end of the growing season, crop and pasture productivity, teleconnection with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), desertification, mosquito-borne diseases, invasive species, ecological resources, land degradation, etc. The Vegetation Health Index (VHI) is a proxy characterizing vegetation health or a combined estimation of moisture and thermal conditions.

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