TERN Geospatial Catalogue
Seasonal ground cover - Landsat, JRSRP algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage
The seasonal fractional ground cover product is a spatially explicit raster product that shows the proportion of bare ground, green and non-green ground cover at medium resolution (30 m per-pixel) for each 3-month calendar season. It is derived directly from the seasonal fractional cover product, also produced by Queensland's Remote Sensing Centre. A 3 band (byte) image is produced: band 1 – bare ground fraction (in percent), band 2 - green vegetation fraction (in percent), band 3 – non-green vegetation fraction (in percent). The no data value is 255.</br>
The seasonal fractional cover product predicts vegetation cover, but does not distinguish tree and mid-level woody foliage and branch cover from green and dry ground cover. As a result, in areas with even minimal tree cover (>15%), estimates of ground cover become uncertain.</br>
With the development of the fractional cover time-series, it has become possible to derive an estimate of ‘persistent green’ based on time-series analysis. The persistent green vegetation product provides an estimate of the vertically-projected green-vegetation fraction where vegetation is deemed to persist over time. These areas are nominally woody vegetation. This separation of the 'persistent green' from the fractional cover product, allows for the adjustment of the underlying spectral signature of the fractional cover image and the creation of a resulting 'true' ground cover estimate for each season. The estimates of cover are restricted to areas of <60% woody vegetation.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2021-03-28
- Date (Publication)
- 2022-05-03
- Date (Revision)
- 2014-07-14
- Edition
- 1.0
Publisher
Author
Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Government
41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, QLD, 4102, Australia
Dutton Park
QLD
4102
Australia
- Website
- https://www.tern.org.au/
- Purpose
- This product captures variability in ground cover at seasonal (i.e. three-monthly) time scales, forming a consistent time series from 1989 - present. The most recent two years are interim products, as there is a two year lag in finalising the persistent green product. The seasonal ground cover product is useful for investigating inter-annual changes in ground cover and analysing regional comparisons. For applications that focus on all vegetation, the fractional cover product may be more suitable. For applications investigating rapid change during a season, monthly composite or single-date (available on request) fractional cover products may be more appropriate.</br> This product is based upon the JRSRP Fractional Cover 3.0 algorithm, which benefited from additional field validation and a new machine learning approach. Version 2 will no longer be available from 2023.
- Credit
- We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
- Credit
- This dataset was produced by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program using data sourced from US Geological Survey.
- Status
- On going
Point of contact
Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Government - van den Berg, Deanna ()
Ecosciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, QLD, 4102, Australia
Ecosciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road
Dutton Park
QLD
4102
Australia
Spatial resolution
- Spatial resolution
- 30
- Topic category
-
- Environment
- Imagery base maps earth cover
Extent
- Description
- Australia
N
S
E
W
))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 1989-12-01
- Title
- Flood, N. (2013) Seasonal Composite Landsat TM/ETM+ Images Using the Medoid (a Multi-dimensional Median). Remote Sens. 2013, 5(12), 6481-6500;
- Website
-
Flood, N. (2013) Seasonal Composite Landsat TM/ETM+ Images Using the Medoid (a Multi-dimensional Median). Remote Sens. 2013, 5(12), 6481-6500;
Related documentation
- Title
- Flood, N., Danaher, T., Gill, T. and Gillingham, S. (2013) An Operational Scheme for Deriving Standardised Surface Reflectance from Landsat TM/ETM+ and SPOT HRG Imagery for Eastern Australia. Remote Sens. 2013, 5(1), 83-109
- Website
-
Flood, N., Danaher, T., Gill, T. and Gillingham, S. (2013) An Operational Scheme for Deriving Standardised Surface Reflectance from Landsat TM/ETM+ and SPOT HRG Imagery for Eastern Australia. Remote Sens. 2013, 5(1), 83-109
Related documentation
- Title
- Trevithick, R., Scarth, P., Tindall, D., Denham, R. and Flood, N. (2014). Cover under trees: RP64G Synthesis Report. Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts. Brisbane.
- Website
-
Trevithick, R., Scarth, P., Tindall, D., Denham, R. and Flood, N. (2014). Cover under trees: RP64G Synthesis Report. Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts. Brisbane.
Related documentation
- Title
- Muir, J. et al (2011), Field measurement of fractional ground cover: supporting ground cover monitoring for Australia. ABARES. Canberra
- Website
-
Muir, J. et al (2011), Field measurement of fractional ground cover: supporting ground cover monitoring for Australia. ABARES. Canberra
Related documentation
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Quarterly
- GCMD Science Keywords
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Platform Vocabulary
- TERN Instrument Vocabulary
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- File name
- 88x31.png
- File description
- CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
- File type
- png
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- Copyright 2010-2022. JRSRP. Rights owned by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Project (JRSRP).
- Other constraints
- While every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of this information, the Joint Remote Sensing Research Project (JRSRP) makes no representations or warranties about its accuracy, reliability, completeness or suitability for any particular purpose and disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages (including indirect or consequential damage) and costs which might be incurred as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way and for any reason.
- Other constraints
- It is not recommended that these data sets be used at scales more detailed than 1:100,000.
- Other constraints
- TERN services are provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN.
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Supplemental Information
- A 3 band (byte) image is produced: band 1 – bare ground fraction (bare ground, rock, disturbed) in percent band 2 - green vegetation fraction in percent band 3 – non-green vegetation fraction (litter, dead leaf and branches) in percent The no data value is 255.
Distribution Information
Distributor
Distributor
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia, 4068
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
- OnLine resource
- Seasonal Ground Cover
- OnLine resource
- Vegmachine Timeseries Viewer
- OnLine resource
- Forage Report (QLD only)
Data quality info
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Other
- 1) The input imagery was processed to level L1T by the USGS. Geodetic accuracy of the product depends on the image quality and the accuracy, number, and distribution of the ground control points.</br> 2) The fractional cover model was compared to samples drawn from approximately 4000 field reference sites.
Report
Result
- Statement
- 1) The USGS aims to provide image-to-image registration with an accuracy of 12m. Refer to the L8 Data Users Handbook for more detail.</br> 2) The fractional cover model predicts the vegetation cover fractions with MAE/wMAPE/RMSE of:</br> bare - 6.9%/34.9%/14.5% </br> photosynthetic vegetation (PV) - 4.6%/37.9%/10.6% </br> non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) - 9.8%/25.2%/16.9% </br>
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Landsat surface reflectance data > multiple single-date fractional cover datasets > seasonal composite of fractional cover > seasonal persistent green > seasonal ground cover
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Process step
- Description
- To produce the ground cover product, the fractional cover product is adjusted using an estimate of the proportion of the pixel obscured by mid and over-storey foliage. We obtain this estimate of mid and over-storey vegetation by combining the persistent dry and persistent green layers. The persistent dry is an estimate derived from field data relationships, while the persistent green is calculated based on time-series analysis. By effectively estimating and then removing the mid and over-storey foliage from the pixel, we can estimate ground cover for that pixel. This estimate is based on the proportion of ground that was visible by the satellite. We assume that fractional cover fractions in each vegetation layer are independent, that is that the presence of mid and over-storey vegetation does not influence the distribution of the ground cover fractions.
Process step
- Description
- Fractional Cover: Land cover fractions representing the proportions of green, non-green and bare cover are estimated for each Landsat image within the season, using the JRSRP Fractional Cover 3.0 multi layer perceptron model. The individual date fractional cover images are then composited into representative seasonal images, using the method described in Flood, 2013. The benefits of compositing in this manner are the creation of a regular time-series capturing seasonal variability, and the minimisation of missing data and contamination present in single date imagery (Flood, 2013). Further details of the product can be found on the seasonal fractional cover product page.
Process step
- Description
- Persistent Green: The persistent green model estimates persistent green by investigating the long term green fraction of the fractional cover product and determining the minimum green that is present regardless of seasonality. This component is assumed to be associated with perennial vegetation and therefore ‘persistent’. Persistent green images can only be created retrospectively, so ground cover images within the last two years are created using the most recent persistent green. These images are tagged ‘_vinterim’ to indicate they will eventually be replaced, when the persistent green later for the corresponding season becomes available. It is expected that the interim images will be almost identical in nature to the final products when they become available.
Process step
- Description
- Data Storage: A 3 band (byte) image is produced: band 1 – bare ground fraction (in percent). band 2 - green vegetation fraction (in percent). band 3 – non-green vegetation fraction (in percent).
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/EPSG:3577
- Reference system type
- Geodetic Geographic 2D
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/fe9d86e1-54e8-4866-a61c-0422aee8c699
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fe9d86e1-54e8-4866-a61c-0422aee8c699
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2021-03-28T00:00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2022-08-23T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
- Edition
- 1
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
- Title
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
- Date (published)
- 2021
- Edition
- 1.0
Identifier
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available