The reconstruction of abnormal segments in HJ-1A/B NDVI time series using MODIS: a statistical method

Abstract

HJ-1A/B is the first small satellite constellation built by China for environmental and disaster monitoring and forecasting. The satellite group has a 2-day repetition cycle and 30 m spatial resolution (charge coupled device camera). Thus, HJ-1A/B can provide hyper-temporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series with a medium–high spatial resolution. However, the quality of the HJ NDVI time series can be abnormally low due to a number of factors, such as cloud cover, continuous fog, and haze. In the rainy season or in areas with serious atmospheric pollution, low-quality series often appear in succession, which is referred to as an abnormal segment. Neither the composition method nor quality flags satisfactorily solve this problem; therefore, a large amount of noise and long periods of abnormally low values often remain in HJ NDVI time series. This article presents a method to reconstruct the abnormal segments in HJ NDVI time series with the assistance of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI time series. The cointegration test was adopted to decide whether MODIS can be used for the reconstruction of NDVI time series for the corresponding HJ image pixels. Statistical quality control methods were used for singling out the abnormal segments in the HJ NDVI time series and establishing an error correction model that combines MODIS and HJ NDVI time series to perform the reconstruction. The study area is located in Jiangsu Province, China. Four-year (2009–2012) HJ multispectral images that cover the study area were used. The results show that abnormal segments in the HJ NDVI time series can be corrected using the proposed method. In a particular year, this method can decrease the root mean square error between the HJ NDVI time series and the reference sequence by 52.5%.