Global Land Cover Map for 2009 (GlobCover 2009)

The GlobCover initiative of ESA developed and demonstrated a service for the generation of global land cover maps, based on Envisat MERIS Fine Resolution (300 m) mode data. ESA and Université catholique de Louvain demonstrated the possibility to use the GlobCover system operationally by delivering GlobCover 2009, the 2009 global land cover map, within a year of the last satellite acquisition. For maximum user benefit the thematic legend of GlobCover is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). The system is based on an automatic pre-processing and classification chain. Finally, the global land cover map was validated by an international group of land cover experts and the validation reports are also available to the user community.