When referring to remote sensing, the reference is to satellite remote sensing with popular sensors (specifically, ASTER, Landsat, Sentinel, and MODIS). The topic of the paper is discriminating changes in NDVI values between circumpolar ecotone shifts and circumpolar canopy growth (infilling). I give some rough expectations of the paper content, and I have attached the original research paper from which NDVI is derived.
During the first part of the essay, it is not necessary to give formulas, simply an explanation of the workings will do.
1 pg: What is satellite remote sensing? How does remote sensing work (with specific reference to atmospheric windows)? Two paragraphs.
.5 pg: What are remote sensing spectral enhancement indices? How do they work? One paragraph.
.5 pg: What are remote sensing vegetation indices? How do they work? One paragraph.
From this point forward: When explaining specific vegetation indices, the band formulas should be given as well as an explanation of why those formulas are advantageous (e.g., how the soil adjusted vegetation index compensates for background soil when reading plant phenology).
.5 pg: What is the (normalized difference vegetation index) NDVI? Specifically, who authored it and how does it work? One paragraph.
1 pg: What are the most frequent applications of NDVI?
1 pg: What is NDVI saturation? Why does it happen? How does this effect applications?
.5 pg: What are circumpolar landscapes? One paragraph.
1.5 pg: What is an ecotone? Why do ecotone boundaries shift in circumpolar landscapes? How does NDVI saturation relate to ecotone boundary shifts in circumpolar landscapes?
1 pg: How does NDVI saturation relate to canopy growth in circumpolar landscapes?
1 pg: Why is overcoming NDVI saturation a potential solution to differentiating circumpolar changes in NDVI values due to ecotone shifts from those due to increases in canopy density?
1.5 pgs: Explain the use of three additional indices for overcoming NDVI saturation in circumpolar landscapes: The soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), the modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI). One paragraph for each index.
