This dataset comprises the Climate Research Data Package 2 from the ESA Climate Change Initiative Vegetation Parameters Project (VP_cci). It is a multi-sensor, jointly retrieved dataset of effective Leaf Area Index (LAI) and fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR), gridded at 1 km resolution for the period 2000-2020. The dataset is based on data from the satellite instruments SPOT4/5-VEGETATION1/2, PROBA-V, Metop/A/C-AVHRR, SNPP-VIIRS and Sentinel-3A/B-OLCI as input data.

LAI (effective) and fAPAR are retrieved using OptiSAIL (see Blessing and Giering, 2021 doi:10.20944/preprints202109.0147.v1). The dataset is processed for a north-south transect from Finland to South-Africa and the full Mediterranean area, as well as for a set of globally distributed sites that is representative for all biomes and for those sites where in-situ reference data is available.

The temporal resolution of both datasets is 5 days, but is computed using data selected from a symmetric 10-day window. The data are not smoothed in time. The transect is ordered in tiles (see the linked Product User Guide for reference). These files contain the fully validated layers of (effective) LAI, fAPAR, their uncertainties and the correlation between both. The sites additionally include the variables Chlorophyll a+b leaf pigment concentration (Cab), the fraction of Chlorophyll Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR_Cab) and Surface Albedo calculated as bi-hemispheric reflectance (BHR) for diffuse illumination with a reference spectrum for spectral broadband intervals at visible wavelengths (VIS, 400-700 nm), near-infrared wavelengths (NIR, 700-2500 nm), and for the combined shortwave range (SW, 400-2500 nm), as well as directional-hemispherical reflectance (DHR) for the same spectral broadbands, computed for local solar noon. These additional variables are not validated.

Compared to the previous dataset (CRDP-1), CRDP-2 has a better completeness, smoother temporal profiles and higher accuracy, especially for fAPAR. Further details about the data, including validation and intercomparison with similar datasets, can be found in the associated PDF documentation.

Tools are available for using the datasets from https://github.com/Christiaanvandertol/VegetationCCI. Three notebooks are available
- esacci.ipynb: A Jupyter Notebook to access, download and plot the data of a single tile, and to carry out a spatial aggregation
- esacci_multi.ipynb: A Jupyter Notebook to access, download and plot time series for a specific location from tiles
- ESACCI_LAI_clumping_correction.ipynb: A Jupyter Notebook to add the clumping index correction from MODIS and to calculate true LAI.