Data service platform for MODIS Vegetation Indices time series processing at BOKU Vienna: current status and future perspectives

The aim of this paper is to present a freely available data service platform (http://ivfl-info.boku.ac.at/) for executing preprocessing operations (such as data smoothing, spatial and temporal sub-setting, mosaicking and reprojection) of time series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices (NDVI and EVI) on request. The web-application is based on the integration of various software and hardware components: a web-interface and a MySQL database are used to collect and store user's requests. A server-side application schedules the user's requests and delivers the results. The core of the processing system is based on the MODIS package developed in R, which provides MODIS data collection and pre-processing capabilities. Smoothed and gap-filled data sets are derived using the state-of-the-art Whittaker filter implemented in Matlab. After the processing, data are delivered directly via ftp access. An analysis of the performance of the web-application, along with processing capacity is presented. Results are discussed, in particular in view of an operative platform for real time filtering, phenology and land cover mapping.