MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields

Description

Note that the following was written for the Collection 3 product. A description for the Collection 4 version of VCF will also be made available. The Collection 4 edition is in review, with the following tiles currently excluded: (2000 layer) VU0910, VU1112, TS0910, TS1112, TS1314, RQ1112, RQ1314, TS3132, TS3334, VU3132, VU3334, TS4950, TS5152, TS5354, VU5354, VU5556; (2004 layer) RQ5152, TS5152, TS5354.

Proportional estimates of cover are developed from global training data derived using high-resolution imagery. The training data and phenological metrics are used with a regression tree to derive percent cover globally. The model is then used to estimate aerial proportions of:

life form (proportion of woody vegetation, herbaceous vegetation, or bare ground)
leaf type (proportion of woody vegetation that is needleleaf or broadleaf)
leaf longevity (proportion of woody vegetation that is evergreen or deciduous)

The first (Collection 3) release of the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields product is currently available for download. This version contains a percent tree cover layer, a percent herbaceous cover layer, and a percent bare cover layer. This product was generated from monthly composites of 500 meter resolution MODIS data. The MOD09A1 Surface Reflectance 8 day composites were used as inputs to the 32 day composites. Compositing was based on the second darkest albedo to remove clouds and cloud shadow. All 7 500m bands were used to derive metrics for the calculation of the percent tree cover. MODIS VCF is also known within the MODIS Land science team as product "MOD44B".

Publications

"Global Percent Tree Cover at a Spatial Resolution of 500 Meters: First Results of the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields Algorithm" M. C. Hansen, R. S. DeFries, J. R. G. Townshend, M. Carroll, C. Dimiceli, and R. A. Sohlberg Published Date: 9 September 2003