## 3 Results and Discussion
### Evergreen Needleleaf Forest
#### 3.2.2 Regional Comparisons
This is particularly the case for scrub/grasslands and low LAI savannas. Figure 9: _Cont._  
Western Europe: Tile h18v03  
Figure 10 shows the comparison between GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS fAPAR and LAI values for 2002 over Western Europe (note that the fill values over ocean are 0 for GlobAlbedo and 1 for MODIS). Firstly, in terms of annual trends, we see the expected high values of LAI and fAPAR in the middle of the year, due to the large amount of crop coverage in the tile. In addition, apparent is the heterogeneous nature of the land cover, particularly in the southern and western parts. Peak values are consistent between years, although the values for 2006 are lower than in 2005. Agreement between the GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS fAPAR and LAI values is much higher than for the tile above, with r\({}^{2}\) values of 0.8 and 0.77 for fAPAR and LAI respectively. The consistently lower values of both GlobAlbedo-derived LAI and fAPAR (and much lower range) discussed above, are also apparent in the 2D scatter plots. Figure 10: _Cont._  
Figure 9: Regional comparison of GlobAlbedo-derived (GA) and MODIS (MO) fAPAR and LAI. **(Top row)**: GA fAPAR **(left panel)** and LAI **(right panel)**; **(middle row)**: MO fAPAR **(left panel)** and LAI **(right panel)**; **(bottom row)**: heatmap plot between the GA (x-axis) and MO (y-axis) values, DOY 185 for all years 2002–2011: fAPAR **(left panel)** and LAI **(right panel)**. Central and West Africa: Tile h18v07  
Figure 11 shows the comparison between GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS fAPAR and LAI values for DOY 185 in 2002 over Central and West Africa. As above for the US tile, cloud is clearly an issue during this period. The fAPAR and LAI values are generally low in both cases, indicating the sparse grassland and savanna vegetation cover. Correlation between GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS LAI is negative for this tile/date, with r\({}^{2}\)\(\sim\) 0.5. As explained above for the Caixuana and Guyaflux tower site comparisons, this may be due to strong spatial and temporal patterns of seasonal rainfall variation across the tile. The response of grasslands, and savanna more generally, is very dependent on (and even defined by) rainfall. This is likely to dominate vegetation timing patterns in these areas, making comparisons difficult. The implication is that care should be taken in interpreting the values from either dataset in this sort of area: timing and magnitude of fAPAR or LAI will be dependent on which sort of retrieval is used. Figure 11: _Cont._  
Figure 10: Regional comparison of GlobAlbedo-derived (GA) and MODIS (MO) fAPAR and LAI. (**Top row**): GA fAPAR (**left panel**) and LAI (**right panel**); (**middle row**): MO fAPAR (**left panel**) and LAI (**right panel**); (**bottom row**): heatmap scatter plot between the GA (x-axis) and MO (y-axis) values, DOY 185 for all years 2002–2011: fAPAR (**left panel**) and LAI (**right panel**). South Australia: Tile h29v12  
Figure 12 shows a comparison between GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS fAPAR and LAI values for DOY 001 2202 over Southern Australia. fAPAR values are much higher across the SE coastal region, where much of the vegetation in the tile is located. The interior regions have very low vegetation cover, reflected in the low fAPAR and LAI values across much of these areas. LAI values across this region are correspondingly low for both datasets (compared with tile h18v03 above), but with some spatial consistency--particularly the higher values across the SE coast. The S. Hemisphere location might suggest that seasonal variation should be reversed compared with N. Hemisphere regions _i.e._, high early in the year, low at the start/end. However, given the small variation in general across the tile, there is far less seasonal variation than for tile h18v03. There is a much stronger agreement between the GlobAlbedo-derived and MODIS values at this site, indicative of a more homogeneous cover type. The correlation of fAPAR and LAI shows r\({}^{2}>0.9\) for both.