Land Use/Land Cover Data Access and Tools

NASA data range from global assessments of snow cover albedo to food insecurity cropland extent measurements. Our datasets and tools help researchers translate these interconnected data points into actionable knowledge.

Commonly Used Land Cover/Crop Extent Data at a Glance

Spatial Resolution	Spatial Coverage	Temporal Resolution	Temporal Coverage	Spectral Resolution	Satellite/ Platform	Sensor(s)/ Model Name	Observation or Model	File Format
500 m	Global	1-2 days	2001-2021	36 bands ranging from 0.4 µm to 14.4 µm	Terra and Aqua	MODIS	Observation	HDF-EOS
30 m, 90 m, 1 km	Regional datasets	Multi-year	2007-2016 (varies)	Varies	Derived from Landsat data	GFSAD	Observation	GeoTIFF
30 m	Global	Yearly	2001-2019	Varies	Derived from Landsat data	GLanCE	Observation	GeoTIFF

Land Use/Land Cover Datasets

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Dataset	Platforms	Instruments	Temporal Extent	Location Keywords	Data Format
Leaf Area Index Maps at 30-m Resolution, Selected Sites, Canada	LANDSAT-7, FIELD INVESTIGATION, LANDSAT-5	ETM+, CAMERA, TM	2000-01-01 to 2001-12-31		GeoTIFF
Leaf Area Index Maps at 30-m Resolution, VALERI Site, Larose, Canada	FIELD INVESTIGATION, LANDSAT-5, LANDSAT-7, SPOT-4	CAMERA, TM, ETM+, HRVIR	2003-05-08 to 2003-08-19		multiple
LUH1: Harmonized Global Land Use for Years 1500-2100, V1	MODELS	Computer	1500-01-01 to 2100-01-01		netCDF-4
LUH2-GCB2019: Land-Use Harmonization 2 Update for the Global Carbon Budget, 850-2019	MODELS	Computer	0850-01-01 to 2019-12-31	GLOBAL LAND	netCDF-4
LUH2-ISIMIP2b Harmonized Global Land Use for the Years 2015-2100	MODELS	Computer	2015-01-01 to 2100-01-01	GLOBAL	netCDF-4 classic
Lund-Potsdam-Jena Wetland Hydrology and Methane DGV Model (LPJ-WHyMe v1.3.1)	NOT APPLICABLE	NOT APPLICABLE	1972-01-01 to 2010-10-15		multiple
Maps of Vegetation, NDVI, Snow and Thaw Depths: North Slope, Alaska and NWT, Canada	FIELD SURVEYS, FIELD INVESTIGATION	VISUAL OBSERVATIONS, SPECTROMETERS, SNOW MEASURING ROD	2000-08-01 to 2012-12-31		multiple
Mechanistic Module for Soil Nitrogen Emissions for CMAQ Model, North America, 2011	MODELS	Computer	2011-04-21 to 2011-04-21	UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, MEXICO, CANADA	netCDF-3
METOP-B AVHRR Atmospherically Corrected Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Daily L3 Global 0.05 Deg. CMG	METOP-B	AVHRR	2013-01-16 to Present	GLOBAL	HDF-EOS
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: MA Biodiversity	MODELS	Computer	1950-01-01 to 2001-12-31	CANADA, ANGUILLA, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, ARUBA, AUSTRALIA	Excel, Shapefile, Grid

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Featured Land Use/Land Cover Observation Method: Sentinel-1

Sentinel-1 is a European Space Agency (ESA) satellites designed to acquire Earth-observation measurements and carries a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to provide all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth's surface. The platform was launched on April 3, 2014, and images Earth every six days. Sentinel-1 SAR data can reveal the surface roughness of the land, oil and vegetation moisture content, and vegetation density. The dadar data can also be used to determine water surface conditions such as waviness and identify water inundation into inland areas and beneath forest canopies.

Learn More About Sentinel-1

Earthdata graphic identifier on top of image of Earth

Sentinel-1 Images Reveal Changes in the Earth’s Surface Over One Year

NASA's ASF DAAC released the Global Seasonal Sentinel-1 Interferometric Coherence and Backscatter Dataset.

HLS data near Columbus, Nebraska from 2022

HLS: Two Together Better than Two Apart

The purpose of the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) project led by IMPACT, is to combine two or more data streams into a single data set and increase their value.

Automatically Generate a Radiometrically Terrain-Corrected Sentinel-1 Image Using Cloud Computing

Learn how to use the CloudFormation Template to automate the processing of Sentinel-1 radiometrically terrain-corrected (RTC) products.

The rectangular image is a map of the St. Simons Island area of coastal Georgia. Land is colored white, roadways are black, inundated vegetation area are green, and water is colored blue. The Atlantic Ocean is in the lower-right of the image and its blue shaded area extends into waterways along the coast.

New Product Provides Detailed Maps of Water In and Around Landmasses

Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are used to create maps of surface water extent for research, planning, and disaster response.

Land Use/Land Cover Data Tools

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Tool Sort descending	Description	Services
RTC Stack Processor	The radiometric terrain correction (RTC) stack processor tool facilitates time-series analysis of such phenomena as flooding events, deforestation, or glacier retreat.	Analysis, Processing, Search and Discovery, Visualization
VEDA	NASA's Visualization, Exploration, and Data Analysis (VEDA) project is an open-source science cyberinfrastructure for data processing, visualization, exploration, and geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities.	Access, Analysis, Processing, Visualization, Geoprocessing
Vertex	Vertex is a graphical search interface for finding synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data.	Search and Discovery, Access, Downloading, Processing, Subsetting
Worldview	Worldview offers the capability to interactively browse over 1,200 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and download the underlying data.	Analysis, Search and Discovery, Visualization, Access, Comparison, Monitoring Natural Events

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