Monitoring vegetation dynamics using MERIS fused images

The MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) can be used to monitor vegetation dynamics at regional to global scales. However, the spatial resolutions provided by this sensor (300 or 1200 m) might not be appropriate to monitor fragmented landscapes. This is why the synergistic use of MERIS full resolution (300 m) and a high spatial resolution land use/land cover database (25 m) is studied in this paper. An unmixing-based data fusion approach was used to produce images that have the spectral and temporal resolutions provided by MERIS and a Landsat-like spatial resolution. The central part of The Netherlands was selected to illustrate this approach. Seven MERIS full resolution and one Landsat TM image were available over this area too. The radiometric characteristics of the fused images were evaluated at 25 and at 300 m. After this quantitative quality assessment, the best fused images were used to compute MTCI and MGVI profiles for the main land cover types present in the study area.