Inconsistencies of interannual variability and trends in long‐term satellite leaf area index products

Understanding the long‐term performance of global satellite leaf area index (LAI) products is important for global change research. However, few effort has been devoted to evaluating the long‐term time‐series consistencies of LAI products. This study compared four long‐term LAI products (GLASS, GLOBMAP, LAI3g, and TCDR) in terms of trends, interannual variabilities, and uncertainty variations from 1982 through 2011. This study also used four ancillary LAI products (GEOV1, MERIS, MODIS C5, and MODIS C6) from 2003 through 2011 to help clarify the performances of the four long‐term LAI products. In general, there were marked discrepancies between the four long‐term LAI products. During the pre‐MODIS period (1982–1999), both linear trends and interannual variabilities of global mean LAI followed the order GLASS>LAI3g>TCDR>GLOBMAP. The GLASS linear trend and interannual variability were almost 4.5 times those of GLOBMAP. During the overlap period (2003–2011), GLASS and GLOBMAP exhibited a decreasing trend, TCDR no trend, and LAI3g an increasing trend. GEOV1, MERIS, and MODIS C6 also exhibited an increasing trend, but to a much smaller extent than that from LAI3g. During both periods, the R² of detrended anomalies between the four long‐term LAI products was smaller than 0.4 for most regions. Interannual variabilities of the four long‐term LAI products were considerably different over the two periods, and the differences followed the order GLASS>LAI3g>TCDR>GLOBMAP. Uncertainty variations quantified by a collocation error model followed the same order. Our results indicate that the four long‐term LAI products were neither intraconsistent over time nor interconsistent with each other. These inconsistencies may be due to NOAA satellite orbit changes and MODIS sensor degradation. Caution should be used in the interpretation of global changes derived from the four long‐term LAI products.