Land cover change and its response to climatic variations is an essential part of researches on global climate change.Based on SPOT normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)

the land cover changes of the loess plateau during the last ten years were analyzed at multi temporal scales using several geo-statistical methods

as well as the response of NDVI to the precipitation and temperature.The results show that the vegetation cover increased substantially during 1999—2008.All the NDVIs at the scales of 10-day

month and season showed single-peak curves with the maximum in August and the minimum in February.Monthly scale was found the appropriate scale for the study addressing the response of NDVI to precipitation and temperature on the loess plateau.The responses of NDVI to temperature and precipitation varied at different scales on loess plateau.The coefficients of correlations between NDVI with temperature were greater than that with precipitation at 10-day or month scale

while lower at season scale.