Addressing the complexity in non-linear evolution of vegetation phenological change with time-series of remote sensing images
Earth observation based monitoring of change in vegetation phenology and productivity is an important and widely used approach to quantify degradation of ecosystems due to climatic or human influences. Most satellite based studies apply linear or polynomial regression methods for trend detections. In this paper it is argued that natural systems hardly react to human or natural influences in a linear or a polynomial manner. At shorter time-scales of few decades natural systems fluctuate to a certain extent in a non-systematic manner without necessarily changing equilibrium.