ODMP Quality Assessment of The LAI Data Products (For Hydro Modelling)

GRAS
Geographic Resource Analysis and Science A/S

c/o Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen
Providing Land Surface Temperature, Albedo and LAI

products from MODIS satellite data
- to be used for hydrological modelling of the Okavango River
Quality Assessment of the LAI data products.
The Okavango Delta, MODIS LAI, 1 km, February 26th 2000
GRAS
April 20, 2004
1
GRAS
Quality assessment of the LAI products Geographic Resource Analysis & Science Ltd.
c/o Institute of Geography,
University of Copenhagen
DK-1350 Copenhagen K
Providing Land Surface Temperature, Albedo and LAI Denmark
products from MODIS satellite data
Tel: +45 35 32 25 78
- to be used for hydrological modelling of the Okavango Fax: +45 35 32 25 01
River
e-mail: gras@gras.ku.dk
Web: www.gras.ku.dk
20. April 2004

Client Client’s representative
DHI Torsten Jacobsen

Project Project Ref.
Okavango Delta Management Plan, Botswana 50042

Authors Date
20. April 2004
Lars Boye Hansen
Approved by
MSR
Revision Description By Checked Approved Date
Proposal
Key words Classification
Open
Internal
Proprietary
2
GRAS
Data origin and description

The MODIS LAI dataset is a 1 km global dataset that is updated once each 8-day period throughout
each calendar year. The product is derived from the atmospherically corrected surface reflectance
and the land cover product from MODIS and ancillary information on surface characteristics using
a 3D radiative transfer model. The data product is validated, meaning that product uncertainties are
well defined over a range of representative conditions. Since the MODIS dataset is continuously
being refined there may be later improved versions. However, the current dataset is ready for use in
scientific publications.
The LAI data products were obtained from the Earth Observing System Data Gateway and post
processed following the specifications listed in the addendum from March 8. 2004 to the sub-
contract agreement between Scanagri and GRAS, October 20. 2003.
Input data: raw data from two independent data granules (coverage shown below).
Output data: Reprojected (UTM zone 34S, Cape datum) and mosaiced data covering the Okavango
Delta area (LAI product and Quality layer)
The data are delivered in 8-bit format with valid data in the range 0 – 100 and a scale factor of 0.1.
A data value of 35 is therefore equivalent with a LAI value of 35*0.1 = 3.5. Additional fill values in
the data are listed below. These values are added during the standard processing of the MODIS data
and are used to provide further information about the landcover.
LAI product - Fill Value Index

Lai_1km
255 Fill Value. Used to identify areas with no LAI value other than 249 - 254
254 Landcover assigned as perennial salt or inland fresh water
253 Landcover assigned as barren, sparse vegetation (rock, tundra, desert)
252 Landcover assigned as perennial snow, ice
251 Landcover assigned as permanent wetlands/inundated marshland
250 Landcover assigned as urban/built-up
249 Landcover assigned as unclassified/not able to determine
3
GRAS
Quality assessment of the data products

In the following section a description of the data quality in terms of temporal and spatial coverage is
given. A number of randomly selected scenes were also examined to test the data are within
acceptable ranges. In order to provide information about the quality in terms of LAI algorithm used
and cloud cover the background information (quality layers) were processed and analyzed as well.
Temporal coverage
The 8-day data products were processed for the period 26/2-2000 – 26/2-2004 and thus cover four
full years. The coverage is almost continuous with only 4 8-day products missing. 2002 and 2003
have complete coverage. The coverage is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Temporal coverage of the 8-day LAI products. Red cells indicate missing data.
DOY 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
1 X X X X
9 X X X X
17 X X X X
25 X X X X
33 X X X X
41 X X X X
49 X X X X
57 X X X X X
65 X X X X
73 X X X X
81 X X X X
89 X X X X
97 X X X X
105 X X X X
113 X X X X
121 X X X X
129 X X X X
137 X X X X
145 X X X X
153 X X X X
161 X X X X
169 X X X
177 X X X
185 X X X X
193 X X X X
201 X X X X
209 X X X X
217 X X X X
225 X X X
233 X X X X
241 X X X X
249 X X X X
257 X X X X
265 X X X X
273 X X X X
281 X X X X
289 X X X
297 X X X X
305 X X X X
313 X X X X
321 X X X X
329 X X X X
337 X X X X
345 X X X X
353 X X X X
361 X X X X
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GRAS
Spatial coverage
The spatial coverage is a measure of how much of the total area that is actually covered with valid
data. Before going into detail with the statistics it is important to note that the underlying
philosophy of the MODIS processing system of LAI is to be able to provide a continuous data
coverage. LAI values are derived based on either a physically based method – the main algorithm –
or it is determined based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) – the backup
algorithm. When the main LAI algorithm fails the backup system for retrieving LAI values is used
instead. The backup algorithm has a completely different physical justification than the main
algorithm and it appears to consequently return lower LAI values than the main algorithm. It is
therefore advisable to use results from the main algorithm as the primary data source and only use
the results from the backup algorithm as an alternative if data gabs are important. However, caution
should be observed.
Quality flags
Satellite data are often contaminated by clouds and/or changing atmospheric conditions. In order to
be able to distinguish between different levels of uncertainties a quality layer is provided with the
data which indicates the potential uncertainties at the pixel level. In general terms if very accurate
data are needed, a conservative selection of data should be made from the flag information,
however, being too conservative often has the effect of a significant reduction of the available data.
If being less restrictive more data will be available, however, with a larger margin relative to the
absolute accuracy of the parameter. The accuracy of +/- 20 % of the LAI products applies to the
data where the quality has been determined to be the best and top values originating from the main
algorithm.
In order to identify and separate the areas where the different algorithms are used the quality layers
from the data products were processed also. The general quality flags in the LAI product are listed
in Table 2. In the quality files areas with the values 0 and 1 states the data file contains LAI values
from the main algorithm; areas with the value 2 identify areas in the data file that may contain LAI
values from the backup algorithm but may also contain no-data values if the backup algorithm has
failed too; areas with the value 3 contains no-data.
Table 2: Quality flags from the LAI product.
Best Possible 0
OK, but not the best 1
Not produced, due to cloud 2
Not produced, due to other reasons 3
As it appears from Table 2 it is also possible to separate the results from the main algorithm into
two classes: ‘Best possible’ and ‘OK, but not the best’. The statistics from the quality layers were
extracted and analyzed and the results are treated in the following section.
Data quality
In order to determine the general quality of the derived LAI values the overall percentage of LAI
data coming from the main algorithm was determined. The results are listed in Figure 1 and
although the rainy season obviously is largely influenced by cloud cover the data quality in terms of
spatial coverage is good. For 73% of the 8-day periods the coverage of main algorithm derived LAI
is above 80% and for 47% of the periods the coverage is above 90%.
5
GRAS
Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2000
120
OK but not the best
Best possible
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
120
OK but not the best
Best possible
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46
DOY
120
OK but not the best
Best possible
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46
DOY
6
GRAS
120
OK but not the best
Best possible
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46
DOY
120
OK but not the best
Best possible
100
80
60
%
40
20
0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
Figure 1: Percentage of LAI values with a quality flag of either 0 or 1. The total percentage gives the percentage
of main algorithm derived LAI at a given date.
Cloud cover
The cloud cover percentage is more or less the residual of percentage shown in Figure 1. Below is
listed the cloud cover percentages and the ‘Other’ percentage.
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GRAS
Percentage Cloud cover - 2000
100
90
80
70
60
'Other'
50
%
Cloud cover
40
30
20
10
0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
'Other'
50.0
%
Cloud cover
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45
DOY
100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
'Other'
50.0
%
Cloud cover
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
8
GRAS
100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
'Other'
50.0
%
Cloud cover
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
60.0
'Other'
50.0
%
Cloud cover
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
1
17
33
49
65
81
97
3
11
12
14
16
17
19
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
32
33
35
DOY
Conclusion
The overall data quality has been examined and based on a number of randomly selected files the
LAI ranges for the study area falls within acceptable ranges of the algorithm (Lai > 0 & LAI < 8).
The temporal coverage is almost complete over the full 4-year period with only two 8-day products
missing in 2000 and 2001 and none in 2002 and 2003. The spatial coverage is limited by cloud
cover in the rainy season but for 73 % of the data files the coverage of LAI from the main algorithm
is >80%. 47% of the files have a data coverage of >90%.
The data in the LAI data files originates from two different algorithms: the main algorithm based on
a physical approach and the backup algorithm based on an empirical approach where the NDVI is
used to estimate the LAI. If continuous data coverage is very important, no separation of the two
algorithms is needed. It should be noted, however, that the backup algorithm seems to return
consequently lower LAI values than the main algorithm and it is therefore advisable to use values
originating from the main algorithm only. In order to separate values from the two algorithms the
quality data layer can be used as a mask with the values 0 and 1 as identifiers of areas with values
originating from the main algorithm.
9
GRAS
The data products derived from MODIS is undergoing continuous investigation and improvements.
The current data set was released February 13th, 2004. The products are state-of-the-art in terms of
satellite derived information about LAI and no other operational data source is able to provide the
same level of robustness and accuracy in LAI estimation.
10

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GRAS

Geographic Resource Analysis and Science A/S

Providing Land Surface Temperature, Albedo and LAI

Quality Assessment of the LAI data products.

The Okavango Delta, MODIS LAI, 1 km, February 26th 2000

20. April 2004

DHI Torsten Jacobsen

Okavango Delta Management Plan, Botswana 50042

Revision Description By Checked Approved Date

Key words Classification

Data origin and description

LAI product - Fill Value Index

Quality assessment of the data products

Table 2: Quality flags from the LAI product.

Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2000

Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2001

Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2002

Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2003

Percentage LAI from the main algorithm - 2004

Percentage Cloud cover - 2000

Percentage Cloud cover - 2001

Percentage Cloud cover - 2002

Percentage Cloud cover - 2003

Percentage Cloud cover - 2004

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