The increase rate, one of the Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters, is a product of the pan-European Medium Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (MR-VPP) component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS).

The increase rate at the end of the season (decrease rate) expresses the rate of change in the values of the Plant Phenology Index (PPI) at the day when the vegetation growing season starts. It is calculated as the ratio of the difference between the left 20 % and 80 % levels and the corresponding time difference.

The Plant Phenology Index (PPI) is a physically based vegetation index, developed for improving the monitoring of the vegetation growth cycle. The PPI index values, with 5-day satellite revisit cycle, are first used in a function fitting to derive the PPI Seasonal Trajectories. From these Seasonal Trajectories, a suite of 13 Vegetation Phenology and Productivity (VPP) parameters are then computed and provided, for up to two seasons each year. The increase rate is one of the 13 parameters. The full list is available in the Product User Manual: https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/clms_mrvpp_pum_d1-0.pdf

The increase rate time series dataset is made available as raster files with 500x 500m resolution, in ETRS89-LAEA projection corresponding to the MCD43 tiling grid, for those tiles that cover the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom and for two seasons in each year from 2000 onwards. It is updated in the first quarter of each year.

The full on-line access to open and free data for this resource will be made available in the second half of 2024. Until then the data will be made available 'on-demand' by filling in the form at: https://land.copernicus.eu/contact-form