Using Remote Sensing to Monitor the Spring Phenology of Acadia National Park across Elevational Gradients

Abstract. Greenup dates of the mountainous Acadia National Park, were monitored using remote sensing data (including Landsat 8 surface reflectances (at a 30 m spatial resolution) and VIIRS reflectances adjusted to a nadir view (gridded at a 500 m spatial resolution)) during the 2013–2016 growing seasons. Ground-level leaf-out monitoring in the areas alongside the north-south-oriented hiking trails on three of the park's tallest mountains (466 m, 418 m, and 380 m) was used to evaluate satellite derived greenup dates in this study. While the 30 m resolution would be expected to provide a better scale for phenology detection in this mountainous region than the 500 m resolution, the daily temporal resolution of the 500 m data would be expected to offer vastly superior monitoring of the rapid variations experienced during vegetation greenup along elevational gradients. Therefore, the greenup dates derived from the Landsat 8 Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data, augmented with Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM) simulated EVI values, does provide more spatial details than VIIRS data alone and agree well with field monitored leaf out dates. Satellite derived greenup dates from the 30 m of Acadia National Park vary among different elevational zones, although the date of greenup is not always the most advanced at the lowest elevation. This indicates that the spring phenology is not only determined by microclimates associated with different elevations in this mountainous area, but is also possibly affected by the species mixture, localized temperatures, and other factors in Acadia.