Mougin E. auteur aut IRD Diawara M. O. auteur aut IRD Soumaguel N. auteur aut IRD Maiga A. A. auteur aut IRD Demarez V. auteur aut IRD Hiernaux P. auteur aut IRD Grippa M. auteur aut IRD Chaffard Véronique auteur aut IRD Ba A. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access The leaf area index of Sahelian rangelands and related variables such as the vegetation cover fraction, the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation and the clumping index were measured between 2005 and 2017 in the Gourma region of northern Mali. These variables, known as climate essential variables, were derived from the acquisition and the processing of hemispherical photographs taken along 1 km linear sampling transects for five contrasted canopies and one millet field. The same sampling protocol was applied in a seasonally inundated Acacia open forest, along a 0.5 km transect, by taking photographs of the understorey and the tree canopy. These observations collected over more than a decade, in a remote and not very accessible region, provide a relevant and unique data set that can be used for a better understanding of the Sahelian vegetation response to the current rainfall changes. The collected data can also be used for satellite product evaluation and land surface model development and validation. This paper aims to present the field work that was carried out during 13 successive rainy seasons, the measured vegetation variables, and the associated open database. Finally, a few examples of data use are shown. DOI of the referenced data set: specialized MALI ZONE SAHELIENNE 082 021 126 11 2 675-686 2019 1866-3508 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010075714 10.5194/essd-11-675-2019 1866-3508 [F B010075714] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010075714 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers19-06/010075714.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2019-07-05 2025-02-24 fdi:010075714 fre