VIIRS/JPSS1 Vegetation Indices Monthly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V002

Seagrass beds are vital coastal ecosystems that provide habitat and nursery grounds for a diverse array of marine life, supporting rich biodiversity. They also play a crucial role in stabilizing sediments, improving water quality, and capturing carbon, making them essential for healthy oceans and climate regulation. This layer shows the extent of shallow-water seagrass beds derived from Sentinel-2 imagery from 2023-2024, based on analysis by Peng et al (Nature 2026).    Dataset Summary Phenomenon Mapped: Shallow-water seagrass extent Geographic Extent: Global Layer Projection: WGS 1984 Web Mercator Cell Size: 10-meters Pixel Depth: 1-bit integer Update Frequency: None Source: Peng et al 2026 Data Vintage: June 2026 Publication Date: July 2026 Analysis: Supports analysis What can you do with this layer? This tile imagery service is designed for fast data visualization and analysis. Identify pixels by clicking on the map to reveal the pre-configured pop-ups. It can be used to model areas suitable for seagrass habitat. An additional 2019-2020 analysis is available from the source.  Citation: Peng, J. (2026). Global 10-m shallow-water seagrass extent mapping code. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18212209 Revisions None Questions? Please leave a comment below if you have a question about this layer, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Overview Carotenoid Content Index (Car) from the NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Ocean Color Instrument (OCI). Car describes the canopy content of carotenoids in terrestrial vegetation. Car is calculated as ((1/R495)-(1/R705))*R800, where R495, R705, and R800 are the surface reflectance at 495, 705 and 800 nanometers (nm), respectively (Gitelson et al. 2002). Data provided as global, 8-day averages mapped to a standard, equal-angle, latitude-longitude grid of 0.02 degrees, which equates to ~2 kilometers (km) at the equator. Data has been corrected for atmospheric scattering and absorption. Pixels with no data values are masked (excluded) due to presence of water, cloud cover, or other features marked by quality control flags as described below. Data Layer Summary Name, units Carotenoid Content Index (Car) Measure of terrestrial canopy carotenoid content, a phytosynthetic and photoprotective pigment. Car is unitless. Spatial resolution 2 km2 Level-3, mapped to standard grid, global coverage Time Resolution 8 day average Each pixel represents an average of the valid, daily values observed within that grid element during the 8-day interval (approx 1 week). Note: 8 day average data layer is calculated from daily, "refined" (archive-quality) Level 3 PACE Car products available here from NASA Earthdata in NetCDF format. Earthdata account required. Each NetCDF file includes all 10 PACE vegetation indexes, including Car. Data Version Version 3.1 Data versions change as improved calibration, validation, algorithm refinements, etc are applied over time. See Version 3.1 Release Notes for details. Latency ~1 month This imagery service provides “refined” (archive-quality) PACE data products from March 2024-present, which have an approx 1 month latency. Note: Lower latency “near real time (NRT)” Level 3 PACE Car products available daily from NASA Earthdata at this link in NetCDF format. Latency typically Earthdataaccount required. Each NetCDF file includes all 10 PACE vegetation indexes, including Car. Intended Use: What can I do with this layer? There are three major classes of plant pigments: chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Car provides information on changes in vegetation carotenoid content and photophysiological status. Carotenoids are structural components of the photosynthetic antenna and reaction center complexes and serve both photosynthetic and photoprotective functions (Blackburn 2007). The time (8 day average) and space (2 km2) resolution of this data layer enables weekly to seasonal and annual insight at local to global scales.   Limitations of Use: What should I know about the data? Data Status (Maturity): This product is provisional, which means that product results have been reviewed and are in family with heritage data products or other basis of expectation, but have not yet been extensively validated and so may still contain significant errors. Data layer is sufficient for qualitative determinations of product fitness-for-purpose, for testing by operational users, and may be suitable for scientific publication. Data Masking: This is a Level 3, globally-binned product from NASA’s Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG). By default, OBPG Level 3 data values are masked (value is set to null, or no data) according to a standard set of quality control parameters. Please see Level 3 Algorithm Usage Constraints for masking parameter details. Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD): See ATBD for algorithm details including scientific theory, calculations, etc. https://doi.org/10.5067/8L77O0Y8GHV8.   Where do I go with further questions? Visit NASA’s Earthdata Forum where users can post questions that are answered by the personnel working at NASA with the PACE mission and/or the Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive Center (OB.DAAC) that processes and distributes PACE data. First, follow this link to view only “PACE” and “OBDAAC” tagged questions on the Earthdata Forum. Then search and read through previous posts for your question. If it has not yet been asked please post your question in the Forum and be sure "PACE" and "OBDAAC" filter tags are applied.     Mission and Product Background PACE Mission Overview: Launched in February 2024, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory uniquely provides near-daily, hyperspectral coverage of Earth’s surface, plus hyperspectral and hyperangular polarimetry. PACE is a comprehensive Earth System mission, delivering all new, space-based information on the health and diversity of aquatic and terrestrial life (algae, plants), aerosol properties & modes (e.g. smoke, dust), cloud types, and more.  The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), PACE's primary sensor, is a hyperspectral (5 nm resolution) imaging spectrometer that measures properties of light from the ultraviolet (UV, 340 nm) through visible and near infrared (NIR, 895 nm) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum in 1.25 to 2.5 nm steps, plus 7 shortwave infrared (SWIR) bands (Werdell et al. 2019). Observations from OCI are moderate spatial resolution (1.2 km2), enabling a relatively frequent revisit time of 1-2 days. This combination of continuous, global coverage and spectral capabilities is unmatched by any other satellite platform, public or private. PACE benefits society by expanding our foundational knowledge of Earth and enabling novel, space-based science and applications tools across water resources (e.g. fisheries), air quality, land monitoring & management, and more.   Terrestrial Remote Sensing from an Ocean Color Sensor? Designed and optimized to operate across a broad dynamic range, from the dark target of the ocean to bright, highly reflective cloud tops, PACE’s OCI also collects surface reflectance data from the world's terrestrial environments across 122 bands, resolving spectral properties of the Earth more finely than previous multispectral missions could achieve. Work thus far has demonstrated viability of OCI’s land data products for terrestrial investigations (Caplan et al. 2025). OCI’s coverage and capabilities enable provision of both novel, hyperspectral-enabled land observations as well as maintenance and extension of certain historical multispectral data records. Advanced vegetation indexes (VIs) enabled by OCI’s narrow-wavelength surface reflectance measurements provide continuous, synoptic insights into foliar pigment amounts (chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins), water content, and photosynthetic light use efficiency across the globe each day. Heritage VIs (e.g., normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI; reviewed in Huang et al. 2021) can also be calculated by aggregating (averaging) OCI’s narrow bandwidths across ranges that approximate the multi-spectral, broadband reflectances of instruments such as MODIS, see the Mathematical Theory section of the ATBD for details. See the full list of heritage and hyperspectral-enabled VIs produced by PACE here.   What other PACE data layers are available? This data layer is 1 of 11 PACE products initially selected for the Living Atlas catalog from the mission’s comprehensive aquatic, atmospheric, and terrestrial product catalog. Click here to view all 11 PACE Living Atlas imagery services. The Level 3, 122-band hyperspectral surface reflectance data (SFREFL) used to derive all VIs is available from NASA Earthdata to download at 2 kilometer resolution in NetCDF format. To access PACE mission data products available from NASA, first learn about PACE data access here, next decide which PACE product(s) you would like to use, then go to NASA Earthdata to find PACE products in NetCDF format, which can be downloaded and then imported into ArcGIS. An Earthdata account is needed to download data from NASA, sign up here. To learn about using Earthdata Search to find data, watch this tutorial.   How can I stay up to date with the PACE mission?   Join the PACE Community for mission news, events, new product release announcements, and to receive our newsletters. Would you like to see imagery services for more PACE products? Please let us know here.   References: Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document: https://doi.org/10.5067/8L77O0Y8GHV8 Blackburn, G. A. (2007) Hyperspectral remote sensing of plant pigments. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58(4), 855-867. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erl123 Caplan, S. and Huemmrich, K. F. (2025) Unveiling PACE OCI’s hyperspectral terrestrial data products. Remote Sensing Letters, 16(4), 422–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2025.2470905 Gitelson, A. A., Zur, Y., Chivkunova, O. B., and Merzlyak, M. N.(2002) Assessing Carotenoid Content in Plant Leaves with Reflectance Spectroscopy. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 75(3): 272–281. https://doi.org/10.1562/0031-8655(2002)0750272ACCIPL2.0.CO2 Huang, S., Tang, L., Hupy, J. P., Wang, Y. and Shao, G. (2021) A commentary review on the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the era of popular remote sensing. Journal of Forestry Research, 32(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-020-01155-1 Werdell, P. J. et al. (2019) The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem Mission: Status, Science, Advances. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100, 1775–1794. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0056.1

NOTICE: This is a beta service without operational support. It will be expanded in a future release to cover the historical and ongoing temporal record of ATL08. This map service is a GIS-ready version of the ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7 (ATL08) data set. ATL08 provides along-track estimates of terrain height, canopy height, and canopy cover, as well as beam and reference parameters, acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the ICESat-2 observatory. The complete ATL08 source data formatted as HDF5 files are available from the NASA NSIDC DAAC, along with user documentation and resources.  This beta map service displays ATL08 data as a series of georeferenced points arranged in linear "ground tracks." These ground tracks represent the 100 m land segments output from the algorithms applied to the photon return data collected by the ATLAS instrument as ICESat-2 orbits the Earth over its 91-day repeat cycle. As shown in the figure below, the ATLAS instrument measures data along six ground tracks (GT) arranged in 3 pairs (one "weak" beam and one "strong" beam in each pair). Each GT is numbered according to the relative location of the laser that generates it, along with L (left) or R (right). GT1L and GT1R form pair one, GT2L and GT2R form pair two, and GT3L and GT3R form pair three, with GT1L on the far left and GT3R on the far right relative to the satellite flight direction. Left/right beams within each pair are approximately 90 m apart with the pairs separated by 3.3 km in the across-track direction. The along-track laser spacing is ~70 cm. Algorithms produce parameters representing 100 m land segments in the along-track direction for each beam. Image source: Smith et al., 2019 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111352 Additional information about the ATLAS instrument, ICESat-2 satellite, and ground track naming conventions and geometry can be found in Appendix A of the ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7 User Guide. Available Parameters A selection of "core" parameters was chosen from the full suite of parameters available in the complete ATL08 source data. A list of the available core parameters, including canopy and terrain height, can be found in the technical specification document. When accessing the data through the web-based Map Viewer, these parameters are visible as a popup window when a single data point is selected. Note: where canopy data is absent, these parameters will not have values. Spatial Coverages and Resolution Spatial coverage is nearly global (approximately 88°N to 88°S). However, data are not produced for orbital segments that cross open ocean only (i.e., do not cross a land surface). The canopy and ground surfaces are processed in fixed 100 m data segments, which typically contain more than 100 signal photons but may in some cases contain less. Temporal Coverage and Resolution  9 December 2025 to 11 March 2026 Data are re-acquired along each of ATLAS/ICESat-2's 1,387 reference ground track every 91 days. This beta service presents a single 91-day satellite repeat cycle. Recommended Data Access Guidelines If you would like to access these data using ArcGIS Pro or QGIS, we recommend using the Feature Service, rather than the Map Service. When accessing the Map Service data using the web-based Map Viewer, we suggest the following settings be applied:Time Slider: Set temporal range to the full 91-day extent Visibility Range: Within the map properties window, ensure the current map scale (black triangle) is within the selected visibility range Recommended settings when using Map Viewer.  For in-depth data users who wish to perform customized data processing, we suggest using the full ATL08 source data, available from the NASA NSIDC DAAC as ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7.

NOTICE: This is a beta service without operational support. It will be expanded in a future release to cover the historical and ongoing temporal record of ATL08. This map service is a GIS-ready version of the ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7 (ATL08) data set. ATL08 provides along-track estimates of terrain height, canopy height, and canopy cover, as well as beam and reference parameters, acquired by the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the ICESat-2 observatory. The complete ATL08 source data formatted as HDF5 files are available from the NASA NSIDC DAAC, along with user documentation and resources.  This beta map service displays ATL08 data as a series of georeferenced points arranged in linear "ground tracks." These ground tracks represent the 100 m land segments output from the algorithms applied to the photon return data collected by the ATLAS instrument as ICESat-2 orbits the Earth over its 91-day repeat cycle. As shown in the figure below, the ATLAS instrument measures data along six ground tracks (GT) arranged in 3 pairs (one "weak" beam and one "strong" beam in each pair). Each GT is numbered according to the relative location of the laser that generates it, along with L (left) or R (right). GT1L and GT1R form pair one, GT2L and GT2R form pair two, and GT3L and GT3R form pair three, with GT1L on the far left and GT3R on the far right relative to the satellite flight direction. Left/right beams within each pair are approximately 90 m apart with the pairs separated by 3.3 km in the across-track direction. The along-track laser spacing is ~70 cm. Algorithms produce parameters representing 100 m land segments in the along-track direction for each beam. Image source: Smith et al., 2019 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111352 Additional information about the ATLAS instrument, ICESat-2 satellite, and ground track naming conventions and geometry can be found in Appendix A of the ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7 User Guide. Available Parameters A selection of "core" parameters was chosen from the full suite of parameters available in the complete ATL08 source data. A list of the available core parameters, including canopy and terrain height, can be found in the technical specification document. When accessing the data through the web-based Map Viewer, these parameters are visible as a popup window when a single data point is selected. Note: where canopy data is absent, these parameters will not have values. Spatial Coverages and Resolution Spatial coverage is nearly global (approximately 88°N to 88°S). However, data are not produced for orbital segments that cross open ocean only (i.e., do not cross a land surface). The canopy and ground surfaces are processed in fixed 100 m data segments, which typically contain more than 100 signal photons but may in some cases contain less. Temporal Coverage and Resolution  9 December 2025 to 11 March 2026 Data are re-acquired along each of ATLAS/ICESat-2's 1,387 reference ground track every 91 days. This beta service presents a single 91-day satellite repeat cycle. Recommended Data Access Guidelines This Feature Service is best accessed using ArcGIS Pro or QGIS, and may be slow to load if viewed using the web-based Map Viewer. If you wish to access the data using the Map Viewer, we recommend using the Map Service instead. When using Map Viewer, we suggest the following settings be applied:Time Slider: Set temporal range to the full 91-day extent Visibility Range: Within the map properties window, ensure the current map scale (black triangle) is within the selected visibility range Recommended settings when using Map Viewer.  For in-depth data users who wish to perform customized data processing, we suggest using the full ATL08 source data, available from the NASA NSIDC DAAC as ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height, Version 7.

The identification of species is one of the most basic, and yet critically important, issues in biology with far-reaching potential implications for fields such as biodiversity conservation, population ecology and epidemiology. Morphology has long been the primary tool biologists have used to categorize life. However, we now know that a significant portion of natural diversity is morphologically hidden, and therefore, we must integrate nonmorphological tools into the description of biodiversity. Here, we demonstrate the utility of multilocus population genetic data for identifying and characterizing cryptic species complexes, even when species share large amounts of genetic variability. Specifically, we have used DNA sequence data from 12 genomic regions to characterize two widespread species complexes in the coral genus Acropora: A. cytherea and A. hyacinthus. These two morphospecies have each been sampled from 5 to 7 locations throughout their Indo-Pacific distributions, and with the use of structure and hierarchical clustering, we demonstrate the presence of at least six widespread cryptic species within these two morphospecies complexes. After identifying cryptic lineages, we then utilize the genetic data to examine the history of introgressive hybridization within and between these morphospecies complexes. Our data indicate that these two complexes form a global syngameon with consistent patterns of introgression between species across large geographic distributions. Citation:  Southwestern Pacific OBIS (2015). Extensive sympatry, cryptic diversity and introgression throughout the geographic distribution of two coral species complexes. Southwestern Pacific OBIS, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand, 20 records. Online:  http://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource.do?r=smpatry_of_coral Released on April 7, 2015. Bibliography:  LADNER, J. T. and PALUMBI, S. R. (2012), Extensive sympatry, cryptic diversity and introgression throughout the geographic distribution of two coral species complexes. Molecular Ecology, 21: 2224–2238. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05528.x_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Item Page Created: 2016-06-09 02:30 Item Page Last Modified: 2025-04-05 18:55 Owner: NIWA_OpenData Sympatry_of_two_coral_species_complexes No data edit dates available Fields: id,modified,language,bibliographicCitation,institutionCode,collectionCode,datasetName,basisOfRecord,dynamicProperties,catalogNumber,occurrenceRemarks,individualCount,sex,lifeStage,occurrenceStatus,associatedTaxa,eventID,samplingProtocol,eventDate,startDayOfYear,year,month,day,fieldNumber,waterBody,country,stateProvince,county,locality,minimumDepthInMeters,maximumDepthInMeters,decimalLatitude,decimalLongitude,geodeticDatum,coordinateUncertaintyInMeters,footprintWKT,identifiedBy,typeStatus,scientificNameID,scientificName,kingdom,phylum,class,order_,family,genus,subgenus,specificEpithet,infraspecificEpithet,scientificNameAuthorship,FID

This image service provides one-time estimates of 30-meter resolution global mangrove distribution, aboveground biomass, and canopy height that represent conditions of mangrove-forested wetlands in the 2000s based on remotely sensed data and in situ field measurements and region-specific allometric models.   The underlying multidimensional image layer contains three variables. Users should use the multidimensional settings to switch between variables.agb (Mg ha-1): mangrove aboveground biomass measured in megagrams per hectare hmax (meters): maximum canopy maximum height (height of the tallest tree) measured in meters hba (meters): basal-area weighted height (individual tree heights weighted in proportion to their basal area).  The maximum canopy height and basal-area weighted height values were capped at the 95th percentile of the maximum value in each country to minimize the impact of canopy height error reported from a potentially small number of misclassified pixels. Data sources used include the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data collected in February 2000, lidar heights collected from 2003 to 2009 by the ICESat/Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) Spaceborne Lidar mission, and in situ field measurements collected from 2004 to 2014. Details about the underlying data can be found at https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1665  Legend:Variable Units Symbol  Pixel Value  Description  agb Mg ha-1  High: 910.476 Mangrove aboveground biomass Low: 0.284 hmax meters   High: 62.789 Mangrove canopy maximum height (height of the tallest tree) Low: 0.849 hba meters   High: 39.79 Mangrove basal-area weighted height (individual tree heights weighted in proportion to their basal area) Low: 0.538  Acknowledgement:Creation of this dataset was funded by NASA"s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program.  Dataset Citation:Simard, M., T. Fatoyinbo, C. Smetanka, V.H. Rivera-monroy, E. Castaneda, N. Thomas, and T. Van der stocken. 2019. Global Mangrove Distribution, Aboveground Biomass, and Canopy Height. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1665 Contact:For inquiries about this service, please contact support@earthdata.nasa.gov or post/view questions on the Earthdata Forum.