VegScape - Vegetation Condition Explorer

VegScape https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape/ delivers interactive vegetation indices so that web users can explore, visualize, query, and disseminate current vegetative cover maps and data without the need for specialized expertise, software, or high end computers. New satellite-based data are loaded on a weekly basis during the growing season. One can compare year-to-year change since the year 2000, compare conditions at a given times to mean, median and ratio vegetative cover, and can overlay a crop mask to help identify crop land versus non-crop land, among many functions. Vegetation indices, such as the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), and mean, median, and ratio comparisons to prior years have proven useful for assessing crop condition and identifying the land area impacted by floods, drought, major weather anomalies, and vulnerabilities of early/late season crops. The National Aeronautics Space Administration's MODIS satellite is used for this project and provides imaging at 250 meter (15 acres) per pixel resolution. Additionally, the data can be directly exported to Google Earth for mashups or delivered to other applications via web services.

NASS developed both the CropScape and VegScape web services in cooperation with the Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.

For more information about this dataset, contact:
Rick Mueller: [e-mail]
USDA, NASS, Spatial Analysis Research Section staff: [e-mail]

Resources in this dataset:
Resource Title: VegScape - Vegetation Condition Explorer web site.
File Name: Web Page, url: https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape/
Web interface supporting data query by layers (Global Cover, Cropland Data Layer, Boundaries, Water Layers, Road Layers, Data layers), Products (Type, Period, Year, Date). Toolbar buttons help define a wide range of map and query operations, data display, and download options.