This mobile application, provided by ESA and partners, serves to promote the ESA Proba-V mission and data by giving users access to vegetation information, as seen from space, and associating this information to pictures taken by the users. Pictures composed through the App can be shared and aggregated through multiple social media channels.
The application is developed as an interactive system that can foster remote sensed data usage by citizens and promote earth observation from space as a way to better understand the surrounding environment. To this end, a primary set of Proba-V NDVI products are available to be queried for the entire life of the mission. Such satellite derived information is then correlated with photos taken by users in specific locations.
The available Proba-V specific vegetation index (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index - NDVI) products cover the entire Globe. Trends for NDVI values are plotted as graphics for specific points selected by users or for the geographical coordinates where a photo of the vegetation was taken. This allows to see the evolution of the index in time, as months and seasons pass by. It is also possible to see a timelapse of pictures taken in different points in time at a given location.
The raw NDVI values are normalized on a scale from 1 to 10 and are grouped in intervals that have meaningful names, such as "Healthy vegetation". All these data are linked with the photo taken by the user and stored for later visualization. A map with all the locations, as pinpoints, where photos were taken is also available. Brief information about the Proba-V mission and about general remote sensing of vegetation issues can also be browsed in the App.
As a next step, the App will connect to realtime information on the MEP PROBA-V. Stay tuned and please share us your feedback!
