Assessing the impact of vegetation cover on total column ozone over west Africa

Abstract

This study investigated the linear relationship between the normalized difference vegetation index and total column ozone. Total Column Ozone and Normalized Difference Vegetation index data were obtained from January 2005 to November 2017 from NASA’s AURA and MODIS archives respectively. The obtained results showed a predominant and significant positive linear relationship between the two variables over the West African region. The prevalent practices of bush burning, deforestation, crude oil exploration and other activities will continue to contribute to global warming through an increase in the total column ozone and its precursors.