An up-to-date, detailed set of notes covering all aspects of NOAA AVHRR data collection, pre-processing, analysis and application. Includes many FTP sites, e-mail addresses and URL locations. Some chapters address particular aspects of the NOAA AVHRR system, such as radiometric calibration and geometric correction, while others provide general information of interest to any remote sensing study, such as radiative transfer modelling and atmospheric correction. The publication of a book that covers all important aspects of the treatment and understanding of the data in one volume makes the work a convenient, informative `recipe book' that is sure to become a favourite for all users of NOAA AVHRR data.

This study evaluates the differences in the visible and near-IR responses of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-9 and -10 satellites for coincident sample locations. The study also evaluates the differences in vegetation indices computed from those data. Data were acquired of the southeast portion of the United States for the 6 December 1986 daylight orbits of NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 satellites. The data sets were registered and 38 coincident sample locations were selected that included land and water surfaces. The data were calibrated to reflectance values with coefficients supplied by NOAA. The visible and near-IR reflectance values and the derived vegetation index values of the NOAA-9 AVHRR were usually greater than those of the NOAA-10. Visible and near-IR reflectance values exhibited trends that appeared to be related to the satellite scan angles at the examined sample locations. Linear relationships were developed between the vegetation indices of the two systems. The vegetation index values for the NOAA-9 and NOAA-10 AVHRR displayed nearly constant differences for a variety of surface features. The results suggest that, with appropriate gain and offset, the vegetation indices of the two sensor systems may be interchangeable for assessment of land surfaces. (Reprints).

This dissertation deals with temporal and spatial variations in the biosphere observed by satellite and the linkages of these variations with variations in the global climate. The study is part of a larger Earth Observing System (EOS) Interdisciplinary Science (IDS) Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions project that deals with the implications of these interactions of biosphere-atmosphere interactions for the global carbon cycle. For this dissertation, both model results and observations were used.