NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Collection

MODIS Land Cover of Asia

Terra/MODIS

Color Bar of MODIS Landcover classification algorithm

New NASA satellite-generated land cover maps are providing scientists with a detailed picture of the distribution of Earth's ecosystems and land use Scientists can better determine how vegetation is distributed and land is being used around the world with new NASA satellite-generated land-cover maps. These new maps, based on a global digital database of land cover types Earth images that is updated every 16 days, will help scientists better understand the Earth's climate and carbon budget and climate, through closer monitoring of water and land resources, including forested and agricultural areas.

These land-coverland cover maps were developed at Boston University in Boston, MA, using data from the Moderate-resolution Imaging-Spectroradio meter (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite. The prototype MODIS maps were created with data acquired between July and December 2000; but future maps will utilize one year of data. Advances in remote sensing technology allow MODIS to collect higher-quality data than previous sensors, yielding the most detailed land cover classification maps to date. The new maps are better because the quality of MODIS data is much higher than AVHRR data. They are also more current because the information content of MODIS data allowed scientists to exploit more efficient automated methods for categorizing land cover than was were previously possible, reducing the time to generate maps from months or years to about one week. Each MODIS land-coverland cover map contains 17 different land cover types, differentiating among eleven natural vegetation types such as deciduous and evergreen forests, savannas, grasslands, permanent wetlands and shrublands. Agricultural land use , as well as, several categories of land surfaces with little or no plant cover -- such as bare ground, urban areas and permanent snow and ice -- are also depicted in the maps. The data product is available at (http://edcdaac.nasa .gov)

2001-11-15

*Please give credit for this visualization to*
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio

SVS

Lori Perkins (Lead)

Mark Friedl (Boston University)

John Hodges (Boston University)

MODIS Landcover

January 2001 to July 2001

DLESE

SVS

Human geography

Physical geography

Forestry

Agricultural science

Closed Shrublands

Croplands

Deciduous Broadleaf Forest

Deciduous Needleaf Forest

Evergreen Broadleaf Forest

Evergreen Needleaf Forest

Grasslands

Mixed Forest

Natural Vegetation

Open Shrublands

Permanent Wetlands

Savannas

Snow and Ice

Sparsely Vegetated

Urban

Woody Savannas

More Information on this topic available at
/stories/MODIS_landc over_20011019/index. html

SVS2001-0022* * *

Boston

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

July 2001

December 2000

January 2001

Earth

Terra

2000

2001

2282

SPD-SCIVS-http://svs .gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a 000000/a002200/a0022 82/legend-IMAGE

http://svs.gsfc.nas…