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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 Sort descending	Version	Platform	Instrument	Temporal Extent	Spatial Extent	Spatial Resolution	Data Format
ISLSCP II Global Population of the World	1	Terra	MODIS	1990-01-01 to 1995-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Historical Croplands Cover, 1700-1992	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra	LICOR LEAF AREA METER, STEEL MEASURING TAPE, MODIS, AVHRR	1700-01-01 to 1992-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Historical Land Cover and Land Use, 1700-1990	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, Terra, NOAA-14	STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR	1700-01-01 to 1990-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II IGBP DISCover and SiB Land Cover, 1992-1993	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra	STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR	1986-01-01 to 1995-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Land and Water Masks with Ancillary Data	1	NOT APPLICABLE	NOT APPLICABLE	1986-01-01 to 1995-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Leaf Area Index (LAI) from Field Measurements, 1932-2000	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra	STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR	1932-01-01 to 2000-12-31	N: 71.3 S: -54.5 E: 172.75 W: -156.67		CSV
ISLSCP II MODIS (Collection 4) IGBP Land Cover, 2000-2001	1	Terra	MODIS	2000-10-01 to 2001-10-01	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Monthly Snow-Free Albedo, 1982-1998, and Background Soil Reflectance	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, Terra, NOAA-14	STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR	1982-01-01 to 1998-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II NOAA 5-year Average Monthly Snow-free Albedo from AVHRR	1	FIELD INVESTIGATION, NOAA-14, Terra	STEEL MEASURING TAPE, LICOR LEAF AREA METER, MODIS, AVHRR	1985-04-01 to 1991-03-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
ISLSCP II Potential Natural Vegetation Cover	1	NOAA-14, Terra, FIELD INVESTIGATION	AVHRR, MODIS	1992-04-01 to 1993-04-01	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		ASCII
ISLSCP II University of Maryland Global Land Cover Classifications, 1992-1993	1	NOAA-12	AVHRR	1992-04-01 to 1993-03-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180		Shapefile
JERS-1 Level 0 Product	1	JERS-1	SAR	1992-05-20 to 1998-10-11	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
JERS-1 Level 1 Product	1	JERS-1	SAR	1992-05-20 to 1998-10-11	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
JERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar, 100-m Mosaics, South America: 1995-1996, R1	2	JERS-1	SAR	1995-01-01 to 1996-07-31	N: 13.0002 S: -19.9996 E: -48.0004 W: -82.0004		GeoTIFF
KMZ for ALOS PALSAR Radiometric Terrain Corrected Product	1	ALOS	PALSAR	2006-03-23 to 2011-04-22	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
Land Cover and Ecosystem Map Collection for Northern Alaska	1	COMPUTERS, LANDSAT	Computer, MSS, TM	1976-08-04 to 2014-09-01	N: 71.5422 S: 65.5592 E: -130 W: -169.712		multiple
Land Cover and Land Use Classification for the State of New Hampshire, 1996-2001	1	LANDSAT-7, LANDSAT-5	ETM+, TM	1996-07-22 to 2001-12-01	N: 45.305 S: 42.6947 E: -70.6608 W: -72.5931		GeoTIFF
Land Cover and Vegetation Map, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge	1	LANDSAT, HELICOPTER, FIELD SURVEYS, DEM	TM, CAMERA, VISUAL OBSERVATIONS, Computer	1982-06-01 to 1993-08-31	N: 70.7117 S: 68.8981 E: -140.322 W: -147.051		GeoTIFF
Land Cover and Vegetation Map Collection for Seward Peninsula, Alaska	1	COMPUTERS, AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS, LANDSAT	Computer, CAMERAS, MSS	1976-06-01 to 1999-09-01	N: 66.9519 S: 63.9658 E: -159.19 W: -168.542		multiple
Land Cover Classification, Snow Cover, and Fractional Snow-Covered Area Maps from Maxar WorldView Satellite Images V001	1	WORLDVIEW-2, WORLDVIEW-3	CAMERA	2015-05-20 to 2019-05-05	N: 39.176142 S: 38.867847 E: -108.032283 W: -108.298097 , N: 48.672717 S: 48.481442 E: -120.993 W: -121.203708 , N: 48.441717 S: 48.269722 E: -120.932614 W: -121.179528		GeoTIFF
Land Surface Atmospheric Boundary Interaction Product L3 V1(LANDMET) at GES DISC	1	LANDMET	NOT APPLICABLE	1998-01-01 to 2007-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	1 Kilometers x 1 Kilometers
Land Use and Cover Maps from Landsat, Mawas, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, 1994-2019	1	LANDSAT-8, MODELS, LANDSAT-5	OLI, Computer, TM	1994-01-01 to 2019-12-31	N: -2.16208 S: -2.56094 E: 114.648 W: 114.356		GeoTIFF
Land Use and Land Cover Change Projection in the ABoVE Domain	1	COMPUTERS	Computer	2015-01-01 to 2100-12-31	N: 80 S: 49 E: -81 W: -169		netCDF-4
LANDMET Ancillary ISCCP Surface Type Data L3 V1 (LANDMET_ANC_ST) at GES DISC	1	LANDMET	NOT APPLICABLE	1998-01-01 to 2007-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	1 Kilometers x 1 Kilometers
LANDMET Ancillary Monthly Mean Effective and Spectral Albedo Data L3 V1 (LANDMET_ANC_TESA) at GES DISC	1	LANDMET	NOT APPLICABLE	1998-01-01 to 2007-12-31	N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180	1 Kilometers x 1 Kilometers

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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