Abstract: | An archive of satellite and aircraft photographs of the western Sudan showed no longterm (1943–1994) trends in the abundance of trees despite several decades of recent drought in this region. These data extend the extant historical record of vegetation change in the African Sahel, where recent fluctuations in vegetation greenness have been monitored with the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer since 1980. Despite substantial population turnover, woody vegetation is not yet indicative of the recent climate changes in this region. |