Consistent Multi-Mission Time Series for Global Assessment of Ecosystems Dynamics and Disturbance

Long-term remote sensing observations enable systematic assessment of terrestrial ecosystem dynamics and land-surface change across continents and climate zones. This contribution presents recent developments in global vegetation and energy, products generated within the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) using harmonized satellite time series. The portfolio delivers global land products, including canopy biophysical variables, land surface phenology, ecosystem productivity metrics, burned area, soil moisture and land surface temperature, all explicitly derived from long-term satellite observations acquired by successive spaceborne sensors. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), LAI (Leaf Area Index), FAPAR (Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation), and FCover (Fractional Vegetation Cover) are provided at 300 m spatial resolution with methodological continuity—with some adaptations—with earlier 1 km products derived from SPOT-VEGETATION and PROBA-V observations. Applying a largely consistent retrieval framework supports the joint use of the 1 km and 300 m records for the analysis of vegetation dynamics since 1999, including both long-term trends and short-term anomalies across diverse ecosystems, with appropriate caution when interpreting sensor and resolution transitions. Together, LAI, FAPAR, and FCover describe canopy structure and radiative properties, providing a physically consistent basis for ecosystem functioning and surface–atmosphere interactions. Seasonal vegetation dynamics are further captured through Land Surface Phenology metrics, reflecting shifts in the timing and duration of growth cycles associated with climate variability and extreme events. Productivity indicators, like Dry Matter Productivity and Net Primary Production, quantify biomass accumulation and carbon uptake at global scale, offering insight into terrestrial carbon cycling and ecosystem functioning. In parallel, CLMS delivers daily updated global maps of fire-affected areas. With its low latency (