Andrew Yee[_1_]
March 24th 08, 03:01 AM
ESA News
http://www.esa.int
17 March 2008
New portrait of Earth shows land cover as never before
A new global portrait taken from space details Earth's land cover with a
resolution never before obtained. ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation, presented the preliminary version of the map to
scientists last week at the 2nd GlobCover User Consultation workshop held in
Rome, Italy.
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.'
"The GlobCover system is a great step forward in our capacities to
automatically produce new global land cover products with a finer resolution
and a more detailed thematic content than ever achieved in the past,"
Frederic Achard of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC)
said.
"This GlobCover product is much more than a map. It is an operational
scientific and technical demonstration of the first automated land cover
mapping on a global scale and may provide the detailed description of the
land surface states needed for regional climate modelling," said Prof.
Pierre Defourny, from the Universite catholique de Louvain, who designed the
land classification process.
"Land cover data is an essential requirement of the sustainable management
of natural resources, environmental protection, food security, climate
change and humanitarian programmes," John Latham of the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) said.
"The GlobCover product will be the first freely available product at 300m
resolution and is therefore a milestone product which will be fundamental to
a broad level stakeholder community."
Jaap van Woerden from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said:
"This map can greatly support the work of UNEP and partners in addressing
environmental priority issues such as climate change and ecosystem
management."
Prof. Christiane Schmullius from the University of Jena in Germany said the
new GlobCover product "revolutionises global land cover mapping."
The map is based on 20 Terabytes of imagery -- equivalent to the content of
20 million books -- acquired from May 2005 to April 2006 by Envisat's Medium
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument.
All images then undergo a standardised processing technique developed and
operated by Medias-France/Postel, together with Brockmann Consult, the
Universite catholique de Louvain and partners.
There are 22 different land cover types shown in the map, including
croplands, wetlands, forests, artificial surfaces, water bodies and
permanent snow and ice. For maximum user benefit, the map's thematic legend
is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS).
GlobCover, launched in 2005, is part of ESA's Earth Observation Data User
Element (DUE). An international network of partners is working with ESA on
the project, including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), FAO, the
European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European
Environmental Agency (EEA), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
(IGBP) and the Global Observations of Forest Cover and Global Observations
of Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Implementation Team Project Office.
For more information about GlobCover products and their availability, please
visit the GlobCover website.
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZ16L26DF_index_0.html ]
http://www.esa.int
17 March 2008
New portrait of Earth shows land cover as never before
A new global portrait taken from space details Earth's land cover with a
resolution never before obtained. ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation, presented the preliminary version of the map to
scientists last week at the 2nd GlobCover User Consultation workshop held in
Rome, Italy.
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.'
"The GlobCover system is a great step forward in our capacities to
automatically produce new global land cover products with a finer resolution
and a more detailed thematic content than ever achieved in the past,"
Frederic Achard of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC)
said.
"This GlobCover product is much more than a map. It is an operational
scientific and technical demonstration of the first automated land cover
mapping on a global scale and may provide the detailed description of the
land surface states needed for regional climate modelling," said Prof.
Pierre Defourny, from the Universite catholique de Louvain, who designed the
land classification process.
"Land cover data is an essential requirement of the sustainable management
of natural resources, environmental protection, food security, climate
change and humanitarian programmes," John Latham of the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) said.
"The GlobCover product will be the first freely available product at 300m
resolution and is therefore a milestone product which will be fundamental to
a broad level stakeholder community."
Jaap van Woerden from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said:
"This map can greatly support the work of UNEP and partners in addressing
environmental priority issues such as climate change and ecosystem
management."
Prof. Christiane Schmullius from the University of Jena in Germany said the
new GlobCover product "revolutionises global land cover mapping."
The map is based on 20 Terabytes of imagery -- equivalent to the content of
20 million books -- acquired from May 2005 to April 2006 by Envisat's Medium
Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument.
All images then undergo a standardised processing technique developed and
operated by Medias-France/Postel, together with Brockmann Consult, the
Universite catholique de Louvain and partners.
There are 22 different land cover types shown in the map, including
croplands, wetlands, forests, artificial surfaces, water bodies and
permanent snow and ice. For maximum user benefit, the map's thematic legend
is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS).
GlobCover, launched in 2005, is part of ESA's Earth Observation Data User
Element (DUE). An international network of partners is working with ESA on
the project, including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), FAO, the
European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European
Environmental Agency (EEA), the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
(IGBP) and the Global Observations of Forest Cover and Global Observations
of Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Implementation Team Project Office.
For more information about GlobCover products and their availability, please
visit the GlobCover website.
[NOTE: Images and weblinks supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMZ16L26DF_index_0.html ]