POTENTIAL VEGETATION INDEXES FOR DETERMINING GLOBAL FOREST COVER

The potential of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data acquired in mi ddle (MIR) and thermal infrared (TIR) wavelengths for deriving global forest cover information was examined. As an exploratory step, these w avelengths were related to percentage cover of temperate coniferous fo rests in the Cascade Range of Oregon, U.S.A. These wavelengths Individ ually were not strongly related to percentage forest cover. However, t heir inclusion within vegetation indices served to strengthen relation s between remotely-sensed data and forest cover. One such index was th e complex division index (C3/(C1C2*C4*C5)), which was also seen to se parate among the four forest successional stages present at this site. These findings have implications for the use of remotely-sensed data acquired in MIR and TIR wavelengths for deriving global forest cover i nformation.