Corrected representation of the NDVI using historical AVHRR and VIIRS satellite images (1 km resolution) from 1987 to present

The cloud-corrected representation of the NDVI using historical AVHRR and VIIRS satellite images at 1 kilometre resolution provides reliable, objective and timely information on the state of vegetation throughout Canada and the northern United States. The methodology applied to the images has remained the same as for the program formerly known as the Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP).

Since 1987, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of satellites carrying the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) records images of the entire Earth's surface twice a day at 1kilometre resolution. This sensor captures two spectral bands (red and infrared) that have proven to be extremely useful for vegetation monitoring to produce the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI image composites on crop condition were produced by GeoManitoba until the end of the 2020 growing season. In 2021, Statistics Canada started producing the weekly composites using an application developed by Dr. Rasim Latifovic from National Resources Canada. Since 2022, due to the aging AVHRR sensor affecting the quality of the weekly composites, the team has transitioned to the NOAA-20 - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite. VIIRS is a new-generation satellite with spectral characteristics comparable to those of its predecessor. To keep the NDVI values stable and continuous throughout the time series, the VIIRS composite values are normalized to obtain comparable NDVI values.

Additional computations were performed by Statistics Canada for Julian weeks 15 to 41 to remove residual clouds from the NDVI composites and statistical extractions by geographic regions using three different types of agricultural masks.

This dataset gives access to AVHRR images from 1987 to mid-2022 and VIIRS images from mid-2022 to present in GeoTIFF format and covers the agricultural land during the growing season of the field crops in Canada (Julian weeks 15 to 41). It also provides access to a database that contains the statistical NDVI by geographic regions (Townships, Census Consolidated Subdivisions (CCS), Census Divisions (CD) and Census Agricultural Regions (CAR)) and agricultural masks (Agriculture (AGR), Crop (CROP) and Pasture (PAS)).

Datasets available for download

• Compressed Files Per Year (download directory)ZIP
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• Historical 1km databaseother
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• Satellite image data processing at Statistics...HTML
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• Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP) Web...HTML
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• Satellite image data processing at Statistics...HTML
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• Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP) Web...HTML
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• Equivalence between the images bands and the...XLSX
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• AVHRR
• Agricultural assistance
• Agriculture
• Agriculture statistics
• CCAP
• NDVI
• Plants
• Resolution
• Satellite imagery
• Satellite images
• growing season

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (31%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 02:52 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 02:52 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Farming
Title Title for the Dataset.	Corrected representation of the NDVI using historical AVHRR and VIIRS satellite images (1 km resolution) from 1987 to present
Description A description of the dataset.	The cloud-corrected representation of the NDVI using historical AVHRR and VIIRS satellite images at 1 kilometre resolution provides reliable, objective and timely information on the state of vegetation throughout Canada and the northern United States. The methodology applied to the images has remained the same as for the program formerly known as the Crop Condition Assessment Program (CCAP). Since 1987, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of satellites carrying the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) records images of the entire Earth's surface twice a day at 1kilometre resolution. This sensor captures two spectral bands (red and infrared) that have proven to be extremely useful for vegetation monitoring to produce the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI image composites on crop condition were produced by GeoManitoba until the end of the 2020 growing season. In 2021, Statistics Canada started producing the weekly composites using an application developed by Dr. Rasim Latifovic from National Resources Canada. Since 2022, due to the aging AVHRR sensor affecting the quality of the weekly composites, the team has transitioned to the NOAA-20 - Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite. VIIRS is a new-generation satellite with spectral characteristics comparable to those of its predecessor. To keep the NDVI values stable and continuous throughout the time series, the VIIRS composite values are normalized to obtain comparable NDVI values. Additional computations were performed by Statistics Canada for Julian weeks 15 to 41 to remove residual clouds from the NDVI composites and statistical extractions by geographic regions using three different types of agricultural masks. This dataset gives access to AVHRR images from 1987 to mid-2022 and VIIRS images from mid-2022 to present in GeoTIFF format and covers the agricultural land during the growing season of the field crops in Canada (Julian weeks 15 to 41). It also provides access to a database that contains the statistical NDVI by geographic regions (Townships, Census Consolidated Subdivisions (CCS), Census Divisions (CD) and Census Agricultural Regions (CAR)) and agricultural masks (Agriculture (AGR), Crop (CROP) and Pasture (PAS)).
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	AVHRR Agricultural assistance Agriculture Agriculture statistics CCAP NDVI Plants Resolution Satellite imagery Satellite images growing season
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2018-09-01
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/44ced2fa-afcc-47bd-b46e-8596a25e446e
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Statistics Canada | Statistique Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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