Landsat GeoCover at the Global Land Cover Facility

Access GeoCover in Earth Science Data Interface

Overview

The Landsat GeoCover dataset is a collection of high resolution satellite imagery provided in a standardized, orthorectified format, covering the entire land surface of the world (except Antarctica). This is an invaluable record of land cover and land cover change, provided in a consistent manner that allows for use in a wide range of activities including environmental assessment, planning, land management, resource stewardship and many Earth science research activities.

The Congress of the United States provided NASA with funding to operate a Science Data Purchase, through the auspices of the NASA Stennis Space Centers Commercial Remote Sensing Program, now part of their Earth Science Applications Directorate. NASA Stennis solicited commercial remote sensing companies for potential imagery products of high science integrity. MDA Federal Inc. was awarded a contract to generate the Landsat GeoCover product as a component of the Science Data Purchase. MDA Federal was provided access to the large pool of Landsat data necessary for the product, which they then processed until they had a collection of scenes covering the land surface of the globe. These scenes were orthorectified by MDA Federal, and the result was then validated by NASA Stennis.