Abstract: Original forest cover fraction, vegetation cover fraction and fraction of non-vegetated area on 250m grid resolution sinusoidal grid were obtained in HDF file format from https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/mod44bv061/, read together with the bit-encoded quality information and converted into netCDF file format with latitude/longitude coordinates of every 250m x 250m pixel, and decoded quality flag information included (see https://www.cen.uni-hamburg.de/en/icdc/data/land/modis-vcf-forest.html).

TableOfContents: forest cover fraction; other vegetation cover fraction; non-vegetated land cover fraction; forest cover fraction standard deviation; quality flag

Technical Info: dimension: 4800 columns x 4800 rows x unlimited; temporalExtent_startDate: 2022-03-06; temporalExtent_endDate: 2023-03-05; temporalResolution: yearly; spatialResolution: 250; spatialResolutionUnit: meters; horizontalResolutionXdirection: 250; horizontalResolutionXdirectionUnit: meters; horizontalResolutionYdirection: 250; horizontalResolutionYdirectionUnit: meters; verticalResolution: none; verticalResolutionUnit: none; verticalStart: none; verticalEnd: none; instrumentName: MODerate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS); instrumentType: visible_to_infrared_spectroradiometer; instrumentLocation: Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) Terra; instrumentProvider: NOAA/NASA

Methods: [1] https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod44bv061/; [2] Townshend, J., et al., User Guide for the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields product Collection 6.1, verison 1, https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/1494/MOD44B_User_Guide_V61pdf; [3] Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD), https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/113/MOD44B_ATBD.pdf; [4] Carroll, M., et al., 2011. Vegetative Cover Conversion and Vegetation Continuous Fields. In: Ramachandran, B., C. O. Justice, and M. Abrams (eds.), Land Remote Sensing and Global Environment Change: NASA's Earth Observing System and the Science of ASTER and MODIS. Springer Verlag.; [5] Hansen, M., et al., 2005. Estimation of tree cover using MODIS data at global, continental and regional/local scales. Int. J. Rem. Sens., 26(19), 4359-4380.

Units: Units for all variables (see TableOfContents): percent; percent; percent; percent; 1

geoLocations: westBoundLongitude:depends on tile; eastBoundLongitude: depends on tile; southBoundLatitude: depends on tile; northBoundLatitude: depends on tile; geoLocationPlace: global on land, see: https://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODLAND_grid.html

Size: files are packed into one zip-archive per year with an average size of about 25.6 GByte.

Format: netCDF

DataSources:

Original data on sinusoidal grid tiles in hdf-format: https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD44B.061 (last accessed 2023-06-23), see also https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/mod44bv061/ (last accessed: 2023-16-16)

Contact: stefan.kern (at) uni-hamburg.de

Web page: https://www.cen.uni-hamburg.de/en/icdc/data/land/modis-vcf-forest.html