Analysis of vegetation seasonal evolution and mapping of forest cover in West Africa with the use of NOAA AVHRR HRPT data.

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 1.1-km resolution data have been used for two purposes over the forest-savanna contact in Western Africa. First, the seasonal rhythms of the principal plant communities have been assessed using 34 NOAA images from October 1986 to September 1987. The feasibility of using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Surface Temperature (ST) was also tested. The second part of the study consisted in selecting a single good quality image of the dry season for mapping the main vegetation types. (...)