1 Degree Global Land Cover Data Set Derived from AVHRR

The University of Maryland (UMD) 1 degree global land cover product was produced by the UMD Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) maximum, monthly composites imagery of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values acquired between 1981 and 1994. The original data, at approximately 8 km resolution, were averaged to one by one degree resolution and analyzed to distinguish fourteen land cover classes. This coarse resolution data set was used as the basis for a supervised classification of eleven cover types that broadly represent the major biomes of the world.

The data are available as a global coverage in binary (BSQ) and GeoTIFF formats. Additional information and references on this data set can be found at the GLCF web site.