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Full catalog/GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE
GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE·v001·dataset

Where croplands are in South Asia (30 m, 2015)

Global Food Security-support Analysis Data (GFSAD) Cropland Extent 2015 South Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran product 30 m V001
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. A map showing where croplands were across South Asia, Afghanistan and Iran around 2015, at 30 m resolution, marking each area as cropland, non-cropland, or water.

How it's made. Created by feeding Landsat 8 imagery and SRTM elevation data into a machine-learning classifier (Random Forest) that decides whether each pixel is farmland.

How & where you'd use it. Provides baseline data for agriculture, water-sustainability and food-security studies, and supports policymaking that depends on knowing where crops are grown.

What's measured

AGRICULTURE › AGRICULTURAL PLANT SCIENCE › CROP/PLANT YIELDSLAND SURFACE › LAND USE/LAND COVER › LAND USE CLASSESLAND SURFACE › LANDSCAPE › LANDSCAPE PATTERNSBIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › ANTHROPOGENIC/HUMAN INFLUENCED ECOSYSTEMS › AGRICULTURAL LANDS › CROPLAND

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2013-01-01 → 2016-06-30
  • Measured byLANDSAT-8 (OLI) · LANDSAT-7 (ETM+) · DEM · LANDSAT-5 (TM)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent39.998656, -10.038404, 100.001086, 40.10861
  • 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 NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments ([MEaSUREs](https://earthdata.nasa.gov/about/competitive-programs/measures)) Global Food Security-support Analysis Data (GFSAD) data product provides cropland extent data over South Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran for nominal year 2015 at 30 meter resolution (GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE). The monitoring of global cropland extent is critical for policymaking and provides important baseline data that are used in many agricultural cropland studies pertaining to water sustainability and food security. The GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE data product uses the pixel-based supervised classifier, Random Forest (RF), to retrieve cropland extent from a combination of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and elevation derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Version 3 data products. Each GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE GeoTIFF file contains a cropland extent layer that defines areas of cropland, non-cropland, and water bodies over a 10° by 10° area. Known Issues * Known issues, including constraints and limitations, are provided on page 18 of the ATBD.

Get the data

gfsad30saafgirce_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GFSAD30SAAFGIRCE",
    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.