ISLSCP II: Global Land Cover Classifications from AVHRR, 1992-1993

13 vegetation classes, plus water and unclassified, depict global land cover based on a modified International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme legend. This dataset was derived from 1-kilometer Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer data spanning April 1992 to March 1993 and resampled to three spatial resolutions: 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 degrees. It provides the fractional coverage of each class within these coarser grids for use in modeling global biogeochemical cycles.

Use Cases

• Calibrating or validating global climate models based on land surface parameters.
• Studying changes in vegetation distribution over time using a foundational map.
• Incorporating fractional land cover data into hydrological or carbon cycle simulations.
• Providing a baseline land cover product for MODIS sensor validation and comparison.

Strengths

• Provides data at three standardized spatial resolutions (0.25°, 0.5°, 1.0°) for model interoperability.
• Internally consistent global coverage derived from a full year of AVHRR satellite data.
• Serves as one of the MODIS at-launch land cover maps, indicating its foundational role.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low: column names, row counts, and exact file sizes are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1993-03-31 vs. 2026-04 10) suggest possible metadata errors or re-hosting without new data.
• The original data is from 1992-1993, limiting its utility for contemporary analysis without complementary newer datasets.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP II), University of Maryland.

Collection Method

Created from 1km AVHRR data using all available bands and NDVI, then resampled and adjusted to match an ISLSCP II land/water mask.

Time Range

April 1992 to March 1993

Freshness

The data itself is from 1992-1993. Platform metadata shows a last updated date of 2026-04-10, but this likely refers to a re-hosting event.

Geography

Global