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2 # MODIS Global Land Cover Classifications at 0.25, 0.5 and 1 degree (2000-2001)#
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5 The files in this directory were provided by Drs. Mark Friedl and Alan Strahler,
6 and Mr. John Hodges from the Department of Geography at Boston University. These
7 are global, coarse resolution (1/4, 1/2 and 1 degree spatial resolutions) land
8 cover classifications (dominant type, classification confidence and fractional
9 cover) generated using a full year of MODerate Resolution Imaging
10 Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data covering the period from October 2000 to October
11 2001. These land cover products use the classification scheme proposed by the
12 International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). Original 1km MODIS data and
13 land cover products are available from the EROS Data Center Distributed Active
14 Archive Center (DAAC) or from Boston University at
15 http://geography.bu.edu/landcover/index.html
17 The objective of the MODIS Land Cover Product is to provide a suite of land
18 cover types useful to global system science modelers by exploiting the
19 information content of MODIS data in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and
20 directional domains. The MODIS Land Cover Product describes the geographic
21 distribution of the 17 IGBP land cover types based on an annual time series of
22 observations (See below for a list of the cover types included). Confidence
23 assessments of the classifications are also provided in a separate layer. The
24 data set also provides the fraction of each of the 17 classes within the coarser
25 resolution cells. These data sets have been adjusted to match the land/water
26 boundaries and fractions of the ISLSCP2 land/water masks. The user should always
27 refer to the full data set documentation and/or the reference below for more
28 information on data processing.
30 Please cite the following publication when these data are used:
32 Friedl M.A., D.K. McIver, J.C.F. Hodges, X.Y. Zhang, D. Muchoney, A.H. Strahler,
33 C.E. Woodcock, S. Gopal, A. Schneider, A. Cooper, A. Baccini, F. Gao, and C.
34 Schaaf, Global Land Cover Mapping from MODIS: Algorithms and Early Results,
35 Remote Sensing of Environment 83(1-2):287-302.
37 Any problems encountered with the data set should be reported to Eric Brown de
38 Colstoun at ericbdc@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov
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44 The data sets in this directory are provided at three spatial resolutions of
45 0.25, 0.5 and 1 degrees lat./long. For each spatial resolution there is a land
46 cover type classification layer (with numbers from 0 to 17), a classifier
47 confidence assessment layer, in percent, and 17 associated layers that provide
48 the fraction, from 0 to 100, of each land cover type per cell. The land cover
49 type files are named "modis_landcover_class_XX.asc", where XX is qd, hd, or 1d,
50 denoting a spatial resolution of 1/4, 1/2 or 1 degrees, respectively. The
51 classifier confidence layer is named "modis_landcover_conf_XX.asc", where XX is
52 the same as above. The fractional files are called "modis_landcover_XX_cZZ.asc",
53 where XX is the same as above, and ZZ is a number from 00 to 17 which represents
54 the land cover type code as described below. As an example, the file named
55 "modis_landcover_qd_c02.asc" is the fraction of Evergreen Broadleaf Forest at a
56 quarter degree spatial resolution. This file is associated with the
57 "modis_landcover_class_qd.asc" land cover type file and the
58 "modis_landcover_conf_qd.asc" classifier confidence file.
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64 All of the files in the ISLSCP Initiative II data collection are in the ASCII,
65 or text format. The file format consists of numerical fields of varying length,
66 which are delimited by a single space and arranged in columns and rows. The
67 values in the land cover class type and classifier confidence files are written
68 as integers from 0 to 17 and 0 to 255, respectively. In the classifier
69 confidence files a value of 254 is assigned to all water bodies while a value of
70 255 is assigned to cells with no data. All values in the land cover fraction
71 files are written as real numbers.
73 The files at different spatial resolutions each contain the following numbers of
75 One degree: 360 columns by 180 rows
76 1/2 degree: 720 columns by 360 rows
77 1/4 degree: 1440 columns by 720 rows
79 All files are gridded to a common equal-angle lat/long grid, where the
80 coordinates of the upper left corner of the files are located at 180oW, 90oN and
81 the lower right corner coordinates are located at 180oE, 90oS. Data in the files
82 are ordered from North to South and from West to East beginning at 180 degrees
83 West and 90 degrees North.
85 The data files are PKZip compressed. On UNIX, they can be decompressed using the
86 "unzip -a" command. On Windows, they can be decompressed using WinZip or other
87 PKZip software. On the Macintosh, they can be decompressed using Stuffit
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92 Land Cover Type Codes and Definitions
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94 The following 17 IGBP classes are used.
96 0 = Water Bodies: Oceans, seas, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. Can be either fresh
97 or salt water bodies. Note that this class has not been mapped directly from
98 MODIS data in this provisional release. It is overlaid from a Digital Elevation
99 Model (DEM) generated for the MODIS processing stream at the Jet Propulsion
100 Laboratory (JPL). This has been adjusted to match the ISLSCP2 land/water masks.
102 1= Evergreen Needleleaf Forests: Lands dominated by trees with a percent canopy
103 cover >60% and height exceeding 2 meters. Almost all trees remain green all
104 year. Canopy is never without green foliage.
106 2= Evergreen Broadleaf Forests: Lands dominated by trees with percent canopy
107 cover >60% and height exceeding 2 meters. Almost all trees remain green year all
108 year. Canopy is never without green foliage.
110 3= Deciduous Needleleaf Forests: Lands dominated by trees with a percent canopy
111 cover >60% and height exceeding 2 meters. Consists of seasonal needleleaf tree
112 communities with an annual cycle of leaf-on and leaf-off periods.
114 4= Deciduous Broadleaf Forests: Lands dominated by trees with a percent canopy
115 cover >60% and height exceeding 2 meters. Consists of seasonal broadleaf tree
116 communities with an annual cycle of leaf-on and leaf-off periods.
118 5= Mixed Forests: Lands dominated by trees with a percent canopy cover >60% and
119 height exceeding 2 meters. Consists of tree communities with interspersed
120 mixtures or mosaics of the other four forest cover types. None of the forest
121 types exceeds 60% of landscape.
123 6= Closed Shrublands: Lands with woody vegetation less than 2 meters tall and
124 with shrub canopy cover is >60%. The shrub foliage can be either evergreen or
127 7= Open Shrublands: Lands with woody vegetation less than 2 meters tall and with
128 shrub canopy cover is between 10-60%. The shrub foliage can be either evergreen
131 8= Woody Savannas: Lands with herbaceous and other understory systems and forest
132 canopy cover of 30-60%. The forest cover height exceeds 2 meters.
134 9= Savannas: Lands with herbaceous and other understory systems and forest canopy
135 cover of 10-30%. The forest cover height exceeds 2 meters.
137 10=Grasslands: Lands with herbaceous types of cover. Tree and shrub cover is
140 11=Permanent Wetlands: Lands with a permanent mixture of surface water and
141 herbaceous or woody vegetation. The vegetation can be present in either salt,
142 brackish, or fresh water.
144 12=Croplands: Lands covered with temporary crops followed by harvest and a bare
145 soil period (e.g., single and multiple cropping systems). Note that perennial
146 woody crops will be classified as the appropriate forest or shrub land cover
149 13=Urban and Built-Up: Land primarily covered by buildings and other man-made
150 structures. Note that this class has not been mapped directly from MODIS data in
151 this provisional release. It is overlaid from the populated places layer from
152 the EDC Global Land Cover Characterization project (GLCC,
153 http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/glcc/glcc.html).
155 14=Cropland/Natural Vegetation Mosaic: Lands with a mosaic of croplands,
156 forests, shrublands, and grasslands in which no one component comprises more
157 than 60% of the landscape.
159 15=Permanent Snow and Ice: Lands under snow and/or ice cover throughout the year.
161 16=Barren or Sparsely Vegetated: Lands with exposed soil, sand, rocks, or snow
162 that never has more than 10% vegetated cover during any time of the year.
164 17=Unclassified: Artifacts due to discrepancies between the EDC GLCC water mask
165 and the JPL DEM. Found in coastal zones and mid-ocean islands in this
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