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Land in Living Color

Shown here, for the first time ever, terrestrial observations collected by NASA’s new Plankton Aerosol Cloud ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite illustrate changes in the relative amounts of 3 different pigments in leaves observed across the globe each month from March through October 2024.

Launched in early 2024, PACE provides the world’s first and only hyperspectral, global coverage of terrestrial ecosystems every 1-2 days. Hyperspectral satellite observations such as these can allow us to detect vegetation characteristics such as concentrations of leaf pigments which play important roles in plant photosynthesis and protection, advancing our ability to understand and measure forest and crop health and productivity from space.

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Spanning PACE’s first 8 months of observations, shown here are monthly-averaged indices of three major classes of plant pigments: chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Chlorophyll is the green pigment in leaves, the only pigment that previous satellite missions were specifically designed to detect. Carotenoids and anthocyanins are yellow and red pigments also found in leaves. Chlorophyll controls potential photosynthesis, while carotenoids and anthocyanins can aid photosynthesis and help to provide protection to plants when under stress.

The magenta color above indicates anthocyanin, green indicates chlorophyll, and cyan is for carotenoids. The color represents the relative amounts of each of these pigments. The brightness of the color represents the amount of leaves, with brighter colors meaning more leaves. For example, the bright green of the tropical forests shows they have lots of leaves with lots of chlorophyll in them.

The onset of spring in the northern hemisphere is evident as the pigment indices show the northwards march of spring leaf-out between the months of March and May. Black color over land shows no, or very low, leaf or pigment levels. Note how these zones of black in deciduous regions of the northern hemisphere decrease (plants transitioning to spring) and increase in the south (plants transitioning to winter) until September when the pattern begins to reverse with the beginnings of northern hemisphere fall and spring in the southern hemisphere. In contrast, regions where plants undergo less seasonal change show comparatively less difference in these indices over time, such as the coniferous forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Data Availability: As of July 2024, PACE terrestrial surface reflectance and vegetation index products are publicly available from the NASA Ocean Biology Distributed Active Archive (OB.DAAC). Level 2 terrestrial swath data of orbit segments can be found using the OB.DAAC’s File Search Tool. Level 3, mapped terrestrial data products gridded at 2.5 minute and 0.1° resolutions can be viewed and downloaded from the OB.DAAC’s Level 3 & 4 Browser. Note these products are still "provisional" status and have not yet reached "standard" status, meaning they have not yet been validated. For an explanation of these data status terms and other key features to know when working with PACE data please visit our help page: What You Should Know About PACE Data. For more information on accessing PACE data please visit our Access PACE Data help page.