LBA-ECO LC-22: Vegetation Cover Types from MODIS, South America 2000-2001

Three 500-meter resolution GeoTIFF images provide proportional estimates of tree cover, herbaceous vegetation, and bare ground across South America for 2000-2001. The data were derived from MODIS sensor bands on NASA's Terra satellite and processed using the Vegetation Continuous Fields algorithm to represent heterogeneous land cover as continuous percentages. This product is designed to depict mixed land cover areas more effectively than traditional discrete classification schemes.

Use Cases

• Modeling carbon storage based on proportional tree cover estimates.
• Assessing land degradation or desertification trends using bare ground fractions.
• Calibrating or validating discrete land cover classification maps.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of grassland and forest intermixing from continuous field values.

Strengths

• Provides continuous fractional estimates for three key cover types, offering more nuance than discrete classes.
• Covers the entire continent of South America at a consistent 500-meter spatial resolution.
• Derived from a well-documented MODIS algorithm (Hansen et al., 2002) and processed to reduce cloud shadow effects.

Limitations

• Metadata is sparse; specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided.
• Conflicting last-updated dates exist between platforms (2001 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Limited temporal coverage to a single two-year period (2000-2001).

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from MOD09A1 Surface Reflectance composites from the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite, processed using the Vegetation Continuous Fields algorithm.

Time Range

2000-2001

Freshness

2026-04-10 01:45:17.190732

Geography

South America