BigFoot Land Cover Surfaces for Nine Biome Sites

Nine validation sites across North and South America, from Arctic tundra to tropical forest, were mapped between 2000 and 2003. The BigFoot project produced these 7x7 km land cover surfaces from Landsat ETM+ imagery to validate MODIS satellite products. Data includes geotiff images and metadata, following the IGBP classification scheme.

Use Cases

• Validating MODIS land cover product classifications using high-resolution Landsat-derived surfaces.
• Analyzing land cover distribution across distinct biomes like boreal forest or desert grassland.
• Studying spatial patterns of ecosystems within 49 sq km sites co-located with flux towers.

Strengths

• Covers nine distinct biomes, providing a wide ecological representation.
• Data collection spanned a multi-year period from 2000 to 2003.
• Each site provides high-resolution land cover characterization for a 7x7 km area.

Limitations

• Column names and row counts are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting last updated dates: one source shows 2003-12, others show 2026-03.
• License is ambiguously specified as 'other-license-specified'.

Provenance

Source

BigFoot Project, NASA EOS Land Validation.

Collection Method

Produced from Landsat ETM+ imagery, combined with ground measurements and ecosystem models.

Time Range

2000 to 2003

Freshness

2026-03-13 06:22:36.942215

Geography

Nine sites from Alaska to Brazil, representing Arctic tundra, boreal forest, temperate cropland/forest, desert grassland, and tropical forest.