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Full catalog/GFCC30TC
GFCC30TC·v003·dataset

How much of the land is tree-covered (multi-year, 30 m)

Global Forest Cover Change Tree Cover Multi-Year Global 30m V003
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. What fraction of each 30-meter patch of land is covered by tree canopy, along with an estimate of how uncertain that figure is, for four reference years spanning 2000 to 2015.

How it's made. Derived from sharp Landsat satellite images, processed into tree-cover percentages as part of NASA's long-term forest-change data record.

How & where you'd use it. Lets people track where forests have grown or shrunk over time, supporting work on deforestation, carbon, and land-use change.

What's measured

AGRICULTURE › FOREST SCIENCE › FOREST MANAGEMENT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-01-01 → 2015-12-31
  • Measured byLANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · LANDSAT-5 (TM) · Terra (ASTER, MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsGeoTIFF
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) archives and distributes Global Forest Cover Change (GFCC) data products through the NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments ([MEaSUREs](https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/competitive-programs/measures)) Program. The GFCC Tree Cover Multi-Year Global dataset is available for four epochs centered on the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. The dataset is derived from the GFCC Surface Reflectance product ([GFCC30SR](https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/GFCC/GFCC30SR.001)), which is based on enhanced Global Land Survey (GLS) datasets. The GLS datasets are composed of high-resolution Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images at 30 meter resolution. GFCC30TC provides tree canopy information and can be used to understand forest changes. Each tree cover product features four files associated with it; a tree cover layer with an embedded color map, a tree cover error (uncertainty) file, and an index (provenance) file, plus a list of path/rows that relate to the Surface Reflectance input files. Note that the index file and file list were not generated for the 2015 epoch. Data follow the Worldwide Reference System-2 tiling scheme. Additional details regarding the methodology used to create the data are available in the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).

Get the data

gfcc30tc_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GFCC30TC",
    version="003",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.