Slashgeo

An anonymous voxel writes "The full Landsat 7 mosaic dataset behind the WMS server at http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/ is now available for download. Follow the download link on the main OnEarth page. 1.3TB total, split in single band GeoTIFF files. The distribution includes the 30m visual, 30m infrared and the 15m panchromatic bands."

GIS User links to the press release about a U.S.-Canadian science pact to improve monitoring of land cover, biodiversity and climate change. From the PR: "The agreement involves a dynamic land-cover monitoring system for all of North America and the development of permafrost modeling applications. There are also future projects planned for longer-term collaboration on the development of radar applications. The land-cover mapping initiative will be useful to both countries, for the tri-national (including Mexico) Commission for Environmental Cooperation, as well as for international initiatives jointly undertaken by members of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)."

A colleague sent me the link to the active Global Mapping Project. From their summary: "What is a Global Map? Digital geographic information in 1 km resolution covering the earth's surface with standardized specifications and available to everyone at marginal cost. How Many Layers are there in a Global Map? Global Map data have 8 layers: Boundaries, Drainage, Transportation, Population Centers, Elevation, Land Cover, Land Use, and Vegetation." What's impressive is the quantity of countries which participates, in short: most countries!

The short issue #10 of the Global Land Cover Network bulletin is now available. This "global alliance for standard multi-purpose land cover data production" focuses on United Nations activities and projects. From the 6-pages documents: "As anticipated in the last edition, this issue hosts a detailed report of the activities of the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI)." See global land cover related stories below.

mailseth writes "I'm happy to announce the release of my new true color global dataset: True Marble. It's a global 15m, 3 terabyte, dataset which concentrates on reproducing the natural color of the landscape while maintaining the contrast required to distinguish small features. I think it's much more realistic than other similar products out there. I've released a 250m resolution version of True Marble under a Creative Commons license.

We're also releasing True Marble GLCD, a global 15m land cover dataset. This is a highly experimental, but first of its kind, dataset. I've been in contact with a professor and am planning on starting a PhD in the fall to study the algorithm I used. The accuracy isn't the best, but that's what makes it experimental. :) I'm also releasing a free 250m version of the True Marble GLCD." See also related stories below.

Via AGISRS, here's two updates on the GlobCover dataset which provides free 300m-resolution land-use land-cover of global coverage. We discussed GlobCover about a year ago, the source data is not available but should be this coming July. You can browse the whole world GlobCover LULC data using the tool in the links above. From the ESA article: "Earth’s land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors. Scientists, who will use the data to plot worldwide land-cover trends, study natural and managed ecosystems and to model climate change extent and impacts, are hailing the product – generated under the ESA-initiated GlobCover project – as 'a milestone.'" See other LULC related stories below.

An important land use land cover global dataset was released this week, the ESA's GlobCover Global LC version 2 at a spatial resolution of 300m. Amongst the highlights: "The GlobCover Land Cover product is the highest resolution (300 meters) Global Land Cover product ever produced. The GlobCover Land Cover product is based on ENVISAT MERIS data at full resolution from January 2005 to June 2006. The GlobCover Land Cover product has been developed in partnership with EEA, FAO, GOFC-GOLD, IGBP, JRC and UNEP. The GlobCover Land Cover product is labelled according to the UN Land Cover Classification System." Be careful, the product description and some webpages have not been updated yet but should be very soon. We discussed GlobCover in the past. Our Land Use topic may also be of interest.