THE ALGORITHM FOR GENERATING VEGETATION EARTH SYSTEM DATA RECORD (VESDR) THAT PROVIDES LEAF AREA INDEX (LAI) AND DIURNAL COURSES OF NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI) SUNLIT LEAF AREA INDEX (SLAI) FRACTION OF INCIDENT PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY ACTIVE RADIATION (FPAR) ABSORBED BY THE VEGETATION AND DIRECTIONAL AREA SCATTERING FUNCTION (DASF) HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED FOR OPERATIONAL USE WITH THE DSCOVR EPIC SENSOR. THE VESDR PARAMETERS AT 10 KM SINUSOIDAL GRID AND 65 TO 110 MINUTE TEMPORAL FREQUENCY ARE RELEASED AT PROVISIONAL QUALITY LEVEL AND AVAILABLE FROM THE NASA LANGLEY ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE DATA CENTER. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROJECT ARE TO (A) REFINE THE VESDR PRODUCT BY MAKING IMPROVEMENTS TO THE VESDR RETRIEVAL TECHNIQUE TO RESPOND TO CHANGING INSTRUMENT CONDITIONS QUALITY OF UPSTREAM GENERATED INPUTS TO THE VESDR ALGORITHM AND RESOLVING KNOWN ISSUES IN THE VESDR PRODUCT. (B) ACHIEVE THE "STAGE-1 VALIDATION STATUS" THROUGH COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSES OF THE VESDR PARAMETERS AND THEIR COMPARISONS WITH EXISTING FIELD-BASED DATA AND (C) REPROCESS THE VESDR TIME SERIES. THE CONTINUED PRODUCTION OF THE PROVISIONAL DSCOVR LEVEL 2 VESDR PRODUCT UNTIL THE RELEASE OF THE UPGRADED STAGE-1 VALIDATED VESDR PRODUCT IS ALSO PART OF OUR PRIMARY OBJECTIVES. THE AVAILABLE VESDR CANOPY STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS ARE LIMITED TO LEAF AREA INDEX AND ITS SUNLIT PORTION. THE UNIQUE CAPABILITIES OF THE EPIC INSTRUMENT TO CHARACTERIZE VEGETATED LAND SURFACE HAVE NOT BEEN FULLY REALIZED. OUR SECONDARY OBJECTIVE IS TO EXPLORE ITS POTENTIAL FOR DERIVING NEW INFORMATION ON THE 3D CANOPY STRUCTURE FOR USE IN ECOLOGICAL MODELS THROUGH NOVEL COMBINATIONS OF THE VESDR PARAMETERS.