New CLMS global vegetation properties products

The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service has recently released global vegetation properties products giving insight into continental ecosystems status. The Version 2 of Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) and Fraction of green vegetation cover (FCOVER) are derived from PROBA-V and Sentinel-3 OLCI data at 300m resolution. They cover the period from 2014 to the present at a 10-days frequency.

In the context of its land monitoring activities, HYGEOS has coordinated the work between experts from the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) who have developed the products, VITO that operates the processing chain and EOLAB that performs the independent validation.

LAI and FAPAR are recognized as Essential Climate Variables by the Global Climate Observation System (GCOS). Together with FCOVER, they describe structure, dynamics and health of vegetation. Indeed, LAI approximates the thickness of the canopy while the FCOVER quantifies the spatial extend of the green vegetation and FAPAR translates the photosynthesis activity of the plants. The variables are calculated by neural networks trained by sensor and vegetation type. Many pixel-level quality indicators are provided to support efficient use. A near-real-time estimate is available within 48 hours after the end of the dekad while consolidated values are delivered after one, two and six dekads.

LAI over northern Tanzania, last dekad of November 2025.

LAI over northern Tanzania on the last dekad of November 2025, showing the contrast between the forested areas, like the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro (at right of the image) and Mount Meru, and the surrounding savanna. 

The CLMS LAI, FAPAR, FCOVER V2 is designed as global long-term operational datasets that translate satellite images into exploitable ecosystem monitoring information. Thus, they support a wide range of applications responding to key societal and environmental concerns. For instance, they allow to assess crop and grassland growth and yield, useful to early warning detection system and to define sustainable framing practices that contribute to food security.  They also help to monitor the impact of fires, deforestation and landcover change, relevant for protecting biodiversity and addressing people’s concerns about ecosystems degradation. In addition, their assimilation in land surface model improves the characterization of the hydrological cycle, energy and carbon fluxes. Thus, they contribute to better understand the ecosystems functioning and their responses to climate change. This is essential to develop appropriate strategies and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve water-resource management.

FCOVER over Central Australia, last dekad of November 2025

FCOVER over southern Queensland, Australia, on the last dekad of August 2025, showing the green vegetation extent along the ephemeral channels of Cooper Creek. 

FAPAR over Massif Central, France, last dekad August 2025

FAPAR over Massif Central, France, on the last dekad of August 2025. Grassland in the valleys and plateaus suffer from drought while forested areas remains photosynthetically active. 

Products have encompassed an exhaustive validation procedure following the best practices of the  Land Product Validation sub-group of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.

The CLMS LAI, FAPAR and FCOVER V2 are delivered with a complete documentation. The products are accessible through the download options of the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE). They are also viewable through the CDSE browser.

The activity has been funded by the European Commission under a contract with the Joint Research Center.