 The GlobCover programme develops a service that produces a time series of surface reflectance composites and a land cover classification at global scale for the year 2005/2006. An international network of partners is working with ESA on the project, including EEA, FAO, GOFC-GOLD, IGBP, JRC and UNEP.
The service is designed in a way that further updates of the land cover classification are possible at recurrent cost to run the developed system. GlobCover uses as main data source the Envisat MERIS full resolution (300m) mode data acquired between end 2004 and mid 2006.
The following GlobCover products are generated at global scale with 300 m spatial resolution:
- Bimonthly MERIS FR Composites
- Annual MERIS FR Composites
- Land Cover Classification
The MERIS FR Composite products are temporal composites of surface reflectance generated on a bimonthly and annual basis. They are output of the GlobCover pre-processing chain applying geometric and radiometric corrections.
The bimonthly MERIS FR composite is computed every 2 months and provides, for each spectral band, the average surface reflectance calculated from all valid observations of this 2 months period.
The annual MERIS FR composite is computed by averaging the surface reflectance values of the bimonthly product generated over one year.
The Land Cover Classification is derived by an automatic and regionally-tuned classification of a time series of the MERIS FR Composites. For maximum user benefit, the 22 land cover classes are defined with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS).
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