African Land Cover Type from MODIS Satellite Imagery

Annual land cover type grids for the African continent from 2009 onward, derived from NASA's MODIS MCD12Q1 product. The Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) constructs and updates this collection with a 500-meter spatial resolution. Data is provided in GeoTIFF format.

Use Cases

• Classify land cover types such as forest, grassland, or cropland across Africa using the annual 500-meter resolution grids.
• Analyze temporal trends in land cover change by comparing annual classifications from the time-series data.
• Model habitat suitability by integrating the land cover type data with other geospatial layers for ecological studies.
• Assess agricultural land extent and monitor changes over time using the cropland classification feature.

Strengths

• Annual temporal resolution enables tracking of land cover change over time.
• Continent-wide spatial coverage for Africa at a consistent 500-meter resolution.
• Derived from the authoritative NASA MODIS MCD12Q1 product.

Limitations

• Spatial resolution of 500 meters may be too coarse for localized or field-scale analysis.
• The last known update date from the provided metadata is 2009, indicating potential data staleness for recent years.

Provenance

Source

NASA MODIS MCD12Q1 product, processed by the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS).

Collection Method

Constructed from observations by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor.

Time Range

Annual data from at least 2009 onward.

Freshness

Updated annually according to description, but last platform update recorded as 2009-12-31.

Geography

Continent of Africa.