Evaluating the effect of soil moisture, surface temperature, and humidity variations on MODIS-derived NDVI values

The capability to observe soil moisture frequently and over large regions could significantly enhance our ability to monitor vegetation conditions over time and space. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of soil moisture, temperature, and humidity variations on vegetation conditions in the UAE. Visible and near-infrared channels of MODIS instrument on board of aqua satellite were used in this study. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was applied to map the extent of vegetation coverage. It was found in this study that the vegetation areas with NDVI values between 0 and 0.2 have significant correlation with average soil moisture, minimum humidity and maximum temperature and the humidity has the maximum effect on these vegetated areas. However, much lower correlation was found with high NDVI areas.