Mapping Global Land Cover Properties and Dynamics Using MODIS Data

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua spacecraft provide a rich source of information for vegetation and land cover mapping applications. In particular, the multi-spectral and multi-temporal information supplied by MODIS allows a variety of land surface properties to be mapped and monitored at global scales in a fashion that was not previously possible. In this paper, we describe how information from MODIS is being used to characterize both the static and dynamic properties of land cover at continental to global spatial scales, and seasonal to inter-annual time scales. The MODIS land cover product (MOD12) consists of two main components. The first component includes a set of internally consistent maps depicting global land cover using several different classification schemes. These maps are designed to support the needs of diverse users engaged in studies of ecosystem and climate dynamics at continental to global scales. The map layers provided include several common classification schemes (e.g., IGBP) that have been widely used in the past, along with more recent descriptions of plant functional types that are gaining interest in the global ecology and climate community. The second component of the MODIS land cover product consists of map layers designed to provide information regarding the dynamic behavior of land cover at intra- and inter-annual time scales. These layers include maps depicting global scale intra-annual dynamics in vegetation phenology (onset of greenness and senescence, etc.), along with maps depicting regional scale inter-annual variation in land surface properties (e.g., greenness) derived from change vector analysis applied to multiple years of MODIS data. To illustrate the utility and information content of these maps, specific examples at regional scales that include a range of climate and ecosystem types are presented.