Midwest agriculture and ENSO: A comparison of AVHRR NDVI3g data and crop yields in the United States Corn Belt from 1982 to 2014

•Corn yields and NDVI anomalies show a significant correlation (R = 0.61, p = 0.00013).•ENSO impacts vary spatially across the Corn Belt and between individual events.•NDVI is strongly affected by extreme temperatures and possibly by changes in agricultural technology application.•Remotely-sensed data is a useful tool for consistent, continuous crop monitoring.