The following innovative approach has been chosen to supply ARS AfricaE with the relevant information about the observed land surface dynamics and to contribute such information in a meaningful way to the data integration: for each flux tower location a space-time cube will be generated with a lateral dimension of 5 x 5 km2 and a temporal dimension reaching back to the first available remotely sensed.
The innovation consists of construction of a comprehensive space-time cube of all available remote sensing data and products independently of origin, spectral and spatio-temporal resolution (including very early satellite archives starting in the 1970ies: Corona, Seasat, Landsat MSS). The synergistic use of optical and microwave observations will result in a comprehensive change detection procedure of the complex 3-dimensional vegetation features of savanna and miombio ecosystems. Validation is ensured in cooperation with ground measurements. The resulting land surface products and change maps are being used in application.