Dynamique des biomes africains par l'analyse de séries temporelles satellitales

Abstract

Monitoring the evolution of large surface of the earth is one of the main applications of remote sensing science. It is also one of the main preoccupations of many scientific, economic and political communities. The analysis presented in this paper concerns the whole African continent. It is performed on bulk composite data from the NOAA-AVHRR sensor, which needed adapted corrections and smoothing processes. The spatial distribution of the major biomes has been mapped, according to their own phenology. Seldom detected, the ecosystem's annual biological rhythms instantly give information about the spatial and temporal behaviours of the surface. Only the use of remotely sensed data allows us to avoid problems of mixing heterogeneous information (especially climatic data). The spatial and temporal data combined through a clustering model allow analysis of the phenological behaviour of the terrestrial surface at small scale.