Detecting inter-annual variations of vegetation growth based on satellite-sensed vegetation index data from 1983 to 1999

The aim of this paper is to detecting inter-annual variations of vegetation growth based on ten-day 8 km NOAA/AVHRR NDVI images from 1983 to 1999 taken the temperate steppe, located at the northern China, as study area. Uniform image processing methods were employed to pre-process the multi-temporal NDVI images. The results shown, climate change presented warming and fluctuant precipitation over the past 17 years in this region. Annual maximum NDVI reflect preferably climate change, it increased and it´s outset moved up in the past 17 years. An advance of onset and an extension of growth season length were detected.