Satellite observed seasonal and inter-annual variation of vegetation over the Kalahari, The Great Victoria Desert, and The Great Sandy Desert: 1979–1984

We present time-series observations by two spaceborne sensors over three desert regions, the Kalahari (in southern Africa), and the Great Victoria Desert and the Great Sandy Desert (in western Australia). The observations are by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer on board the NOAA-7 satellite from April 1982 to December 1984, and by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on board the Nimbus-7 satellite from January 1979 to February 1985. The objective was to compare and contrast seasonal and interannual variation of vegetation over these three deserts using the normalized difference vegetation index and the 37 GHz brightness temperature. The seasonal variation from both sensors was found to be most pronounced over the Kalahari, followed by the Great Sandy Desert and the Great Victoria Desert. The normalized difference vegetation index was roughly identical over the two Australian deserts and was significantly higher for the Kalahari. Additionally, there was no consistent change from both sensors over the two Australian deserts, but a consistent decrease from 1979 to 1984 over the Kalahari was found in the 37 GHz microwave data.