MEaSUREs Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) Yearly Global 0.05 Deg V001

The MOD44B Version 6.1 Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) yearly product is a global representation of surface vegetation cover as gradations of three ground cover components: percent tree cover, percent non-tree cover, and percent non-vegetated (bare). VCF products provide a continuous, quantitative portrayal of land surface cover at 250 meter (m) pixel resolution, with a sub-pixel depiction of percent cover in reference to the three ground cover components. The sub-pixel mixture of ground cover estimates represents a revolutionary approach to the characterization of vegetative land cover that can be used to enhance inputs to environmental modeling and monitoring applications. The MOD44B data product layers include percent tree cover, percent non-tree cover, percent non-vegetated, cloud cover, and quality indicators. The start date of the annual period for this product begins with day of year (DOY) 65 (March 6 except for leap year which corresponds to March 5). Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) archives and distributes Global Forest Cover Change (GFCC) data products through the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program. The GFCC Tree Cover Multi-Year Global dataset is available for four epochs centered on the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. The dataset is derived from the GFCC Surface Reflectance product (GFCC30SR), which is based on enhanced Global Land Survey (GLS) datasets. The GLS datasets are composed of high-resolution Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images at 30 meter resolution. GFCC30TC provides tree canopy information and can be used to understand forest changes. Each tree cover product features four files associated with it; a tree cover layer with an embedded color map, a tree cover error (uncertainty) file, and an index (provenance) file, plus a list of path/rows that relate to the Surface Reflectance input files. Note that the index file and file list were not generated for the 2015 epoch. Data follow the Worldwide Reference System-2 tiling scheme. Additional details regarding the methodology used to create the data are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) archives and distributes Global Forest Cover Change (GFCC) data products through the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program. The GFCC Forest Cover Change Multi-Year Global dataset provides estimates of changes in forest cover from 1990 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2005 at 30 meter spatial resolution. The GFCC30FCC product represents a global record of fine-scale changes in forest dynamics between observation periods. The forest cover change product was generated from the GFCC Tree Cover (GFCC30TC) product which is based on Global Land Survey (GLS) data acquired by the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensors. Each forest cover product has two GeoTIFF files associated with it; a change map file and a change probability file. Data follow the Worldwide Reference System-2 tiling scheme. Additional details regarding the methodology used to create the data are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).

The NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Vegetation Index and Phenology (VIP) global datasets were created using surface reflectance data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) N07, N09, N11, and N14 datasets (1981 – 1999) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra MOD09 surface reflectance data (2000 - 2014). The VIP Vegetation Index (VI) product was developed to provide consistent measurements of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and modified Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) spanning more than 30 years of data from multiple sensors. The EVI2 is a backward extension of AVHRR. Vegetation indices such as NDVI and EVI2 are useful for assessing the biophysical properties of the land surface, and are used to characterize vegetation phenology. Phenology tracks the seasonal life cycle of vegetation, and provides information on the biotic response to environmental changes. The VIPPHEN data product is provided globally at 0.05 degree (5600 meter) spatial resolution in geographic (Lat/Lon) grid format. The data are stored in Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) file format. The VIPPHEN phenology product contains 26 Science Datasets (SDS) which include phenological metrics such as the start, peak, and end of season as well as the rate of greening and senescence. The product also provides the maximum, average, and background calculated VIs. The VIPPHEN SDS are based on the daily VIP product series and are calculated using a 3-year moving window average to smooth out noise in the data. A reliability SDS is included to provide context on the quality of the input data.

The NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Vegetation Index and Phenology (VIP) global datasets were created using surface reflectance data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) N07, N09, N11, and N14 datasets (1981 – 1999) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Terra MOD09 surface reflectance data (2000 - 2014). The VIP Vegetation Index (VI) product was developed to provide consistent measurements of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and modified Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) spanning more than 30 years of data from multiple sensors. The EVI2 is a backward extension of AVHRR. Vegetation indices such as NDVI and EVI2 are useful for assessing the biophysical properties of the land surface, and are used to characterize vegetation phenology. Phenology tracks the seasonal life cycle of vegetation, and provides information on the biotic response to environmental changes. The VIPPHEN data product is provided globally at 0.05 degree (5600 meters (m)) spatial resolution in geographic (Lat/Lon) grid format. The data are stored in Hierarchical Data Format-Earth Observing System (HDF-EOS) file format. The VIPPHEN phenology product contains 26 Science Datasets (SDS) which include phenological metrics such as the start, peak, and end of season as well as the rate of greening and senescence. The product also provides the maximum, average, and background calculated VIs. The VIPPHEN SDS are based on the daily VIP product series and are calculated using a 3-year moving window average to smooth out noise in the data. A reliability SDS is included to provide context on the quality of the input data.

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) archives and distributes Global Forest Cover Change (GFCC) data products through the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program. The GFCC Surface Reflectance Estimates Multi-Year Global dataset is derived from the enhanced Global Land Survey (GLS) datasets for epochs centered on the years 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2010. The GLS datasets are composed of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images at 30 meter resolution. Data available for this product represent the best available "leaf-on" date during the peak growing season. The original GLS datasets were enhanced with supplemental Landsat images when data were incomplete for the epoch or inadequate for analysis due to acquisition during "leaf-off" seasons. The enhanced GLS data were acquired June 1984 through August 2011. Atmospheric corrections were applied to seven visible bands to estimate surface reflectance by compensating for the scattering and absorption of radiance by atmospheric conditions. GFCC30SR is a multi-file data product. The surface reflectance data products are used as source data for other datasets in the GFCC collection. For each available date, data files are delivered in a zip folder that consists of six surface reflectance bands, a Top of Atmosphere temperature band, an Atmospheric Opacity layer, and the Landsat Surface Reflectance Quality layer. Data follow the Worldwide Reference System-2 tiling scheme. Additional details regarding the methodology used to create the data are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).