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Full catalog/VCF5KYR
VCF5KYR·v001·dataset

Share of tree, grass, and bare ground (yearly)

MEaSUREs Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) Yearly Global 0.05 Deg V001
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. For each roughly 5-km patch of land, the share of ground covered by trees, by other (non-tree) vegetation, and by bare earth, reported once per year from 1982 to 2016.

How it's made. Derived from a long, consistent record of AVHRR weather-satellite observations run through a statistical model that estimates these three cover fractions.

How & where you'd use it. A primary way to measure global forest-cover change over decades, feeding carbon, biomass, and climate models.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEXLAND SURFACE › LANDSCAPE › LANDSCAPE PATTERNS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1982-01-01 → 2016-12-31
  • Measured byNOAA-7 (AVHRR) · NOAA-9 (AVHRR) · NOAA-11 (AVHRR) · NOAA-14 (AVHRR) · Terra (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsGeoTIFF
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The NASA Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments ([MEaSUREs](https://earthdata.nasa.gov/community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects)) Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) Version 1 data product (VCF5KYR) provides global fractional vegetation cover at 0.05 degree (5,600 meter) spatial resolution at yearly intervals from 1982 to 2016. The VCF5KYR data product is derived from a bagged linear model algorithm using Long Term Data Record Version 4 (LTDR V4) data compiled from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) observations. Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) is the ratio of the area of the vertical projection of green vegetation above ground to the total area, capturing the horizontal distribution and density of vegetation on the Earth's surface. FVC is a primary means for measuring global forest cover change and is a key parameter for a variety of environmental and climate-related applications, including carbon land surface models and biomass measurements. The three bands included in each VCF5KYR Version 1 GeoTIFF are: percent of tree cover, non-tree vegetation, and bare ground. A water mask was applied with all pure water pixels (defined as ≥ 95% water coverage) set to zero. Data from years 1994 and 2000 were excluded due to lack of data in the LTDR V4. Known Issues * Known issues, including constraints and limitations, are provided on page 10 of the Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD).

Get the data

vcf5kyr_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="VCF5KYR",
    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.