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Full catalog/GFCC30WC
GFCC30WC·v001·dataset

Where water covered the land in 2000 (30 m)

Global Forest Cover Change Water Cover 2000 Global 30m V001
hydrosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. A map of where water covered the land surface around the year 2000, at a fine 30-meter resolution.

How it's made. Derived from satellite imagery (Landsat-5, Landsat-7, and Terra) by extracting water bodies from companion forest-cover products using a classification model, for dates between 1999 and 2003.

How & where you'd use it. Useful as a baseline reference for the location of lakes, rivers, and other surface water around 2000, supporting studies of land and water change over time.

What's measured

TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER PROCESSES/MEASUREMENTS › TOTAL SURFACE WATER

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1999-06-29 → 2003-01-14
  • 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

  • Follow rainfall, floods and surface-water extent
  • Track soil moisture and the onset of drought
  • Monitor lakes, rivers and groundwater storage
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 Water Cover 2000 Global dataset provides surface-water information at 30 meter spatial resolution. This dataset was derived from waterbodies in the GFCC Tree Cover ([GFCC30TC](https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/GFCC/GFCC30TC.003)) and Forest Cover Change ([GFCC30FCC](https://doi.org/10.5067/MEaSUREs/GFCC/GFCC30FCC.001)) products based on a classification-tree model. Data are available for selected dates between June 1999 and January 2003. GFCC30WC follows 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

gfcc30wc_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GFCC30WC",
    version="001",
    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.