Researchers Map Seasonal Greening in U.S. Forests, Fields, and Urban Areas
With signs of spring emerging across most of the United States, the Eastern Threat Center's ForWarn researchers are monitoring the growth and development of vegetation, signaling winter’s end and the awakening of a new growing season. Now these researchers have devised a means of characterizing and tracking this transition to help land managers plan their work and understand how the timing of this year’s greenup compares to that of the 14 previous years. Using nationwide satellite imagery and data collected between 2000 and 2013, researchers quantified the seasonal progression from vegetation dormancy to full greenup using a common scale from 0 to 100%. They selected the median date associated with the 20th percentile at each location as a common reference point indicating a clear launch of the growing season and created maps detailing the typical dates of seasonal greenup in forests and grasslands, agricultural lands, and urban areas. Read more in CompassLive...
