The state of vegetation in Europe following the 2003 drought

Abstract

Abstract Multi‐annual time series of remote sensing data acquired over Europe from the Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instruments were analysed to assess the state of health of vegetation in Spring 2004, compared to previous years. These data show (1) the dramatic impact of the 2003 drought on a variety of land cover types in Europe and (2) the recovery of most ecosystems to a normal situation in early 2004. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Brockmann Consult, Geesthacht, Germany and the SeaWiFS Project and the Goddard Space Flight Center Distributed Active Archive Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA for the production and distribution of the MERIS and SeaWiFS data.