The ORNL DAAC is pleased to announce the release of a global vegetation data set:
Tree Canopy Cover for the Circumpolar Taiga-Tundra Ecotone: 2000-2005. Data set prepared by K.J. Ranson, P.M. Montesan, and R. Nelson.
This data set provides a map of selected areas with defined tree canopy cover over the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone (TTE). The TTE is the Earth's longest vegetation transition zone and stretches for more than 13,400 km around Arctic North America, Scandinavia, and Eurasia. Canopy cover was derived from the 500-meter MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) product as averaged over six years from 2000-2005. The TTE area was classified according to VCF tree canopy cover and processed to identify patches of low canopy cover which are indicative of the transition from forest to tundra, and differentiate the circumpolar taiga–tundra ecotone for the 2000–2005 period.
The ORNL DAAC is a NASA-funded data center archiving and distributing terrestrial ecology and biogeochemical dynamics data.