Inconsistencies of interannual variability and trends in long‐term satellite leaf area index products

Abstract Understanding the long‐term performance of global satellite leaf area index (LAI) products is important for global change research. However, few effort has been devoted to evaluating the long‐term time‐series consistencies of LAI products. This study compared four long‐term LAI products (GLASS, GLOBMAP, LAI3g, and TCDR) in terms of trends, interannual variabilities, and uncertainty variations from 1982 through 2011. This study also used four ancillary LAI products (GEOV1, MERIS, MODIS C5, and MODIS C6) from 2003 through 2011 to help clarify the performances of the four long‐term LAI products. In general, there were marked discrepancies between the four long‐term LAI products. During the pre‐MODIS period (1982–1999), both linear trends and interannual variabilities of global mean LAI followed the order GLASS>LAI3g>TCDR>GLOBMAP. The GLASS linear trend and interannual variability w…