AVHRR Global Land Cover Product

Available at:

http://glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/esdi/index.jsp

Data reference:

University of Maryland, Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF)

Available data products:

Products

Global land cover map

Scale/spatial resolution:

1km, 8km, or 1 degree

Classification system:

Eleven major land cover types based on interannual variations in NDVI

<>These types were selected primarily to conform with the cover types required as input to
climate models

Remote sensing data:

AVHRR (1981-94)

Interpretation process:

Developed on a continent-by-continent basis, bottom-up approach

Automated unsupervised classification procedure

Training data and phenological metrics that describe the temporal dynamics of vegetation over an

annual cycle

The metrics have the potential to be used as input variables to a global land cover classification

Projection:

Geographic (Lat/Long) and Interrupted Goode Homolosine (except for the 1 degree resolution)

Objective:

To develop methodologies for global land cover classifications that are objective, reproducible, and

feasible to implement on data from additional years and

To produce a global land cover classification at 1 km spatial resolution accessible to the global

change research community

File Format:

Binary, BSQ, Ascii Grid

Data release policy:

Open access

Costs:

For free

Validation:

The data set has not been systematically validated.

Contacts:

John Townshend, University of Maryland (jt59@umail.umd.edu)