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Data

Monthly Blended Fractional Cover - Landsat and Sentinel-2, JRSRP Algorithm, Queensland Coverage 

Ver: 1.0
Status of Data: superseded
Update Frequency: notPlanned
Security Classification: unclassified
Dataset Published: 2021-04-15
Dataset Last Modified: 2026-08-18
Metadata viewed 1376 times
Dataset accessed 202 times
Metadata Created: 2017-01-31
Metadata Last Modified: 2026-08-19
How to cite this collection:
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program & Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government (2021). Monthly Blended Fractional Cover - Landsat and Sentinel-2, JRSRP Algorithm, Queensland Coverage. Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/2d52273c-115a-41ca-88f3-d70fb7b8e831 
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPVegmachine Timeseries Viewer
HTTPMonthly fractional cover for Queensland
HTTPband_descriptions_and_filenaming_convention-v01.txt
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URL
HTTPro-crate-metadata.json
This product has been superseded and will not be processed from early 2023. Please find the updated version 3 of this product at https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/TERN/8d3c8b36-b4f1-420f-a3f4-824ab70fb367.

The monthly fractional cover product shows representative values for the proportion of bare ground, green and non-green ground cover across a month. It is a spatially explicit raster product, which predicts vegetation cover at medium resolution (30 m per-pixel) for each month. This dataset consists of medoid-composited monthly fractional cover created from a combined Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 time series. 
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. This dataset was produced by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program using data sourced from US Geological Survey and the European Space Agency. 
Purpose
This product captures variability in fractional cover at monthly time scales, forming a consistent time series from 2015 - present. It is useful for investigating more rapid changes than the three-month seasonal products. For example, the monthly dataset is used by the Queensland pastoral industry for improved monitoring of drought conditions. The green and non-green fractions may include a mix of woody and non-woody vegetation. For applications investigating long-term dynamics, the three-month seasonal product may be more appropriate. Note: A new fractional cover algorithm will be implemented during 2021, based on additional field validation and a new machine learning approach. 
Lineage
Data not provided. 
Method DocumentationData not provided.
Procedure StepsData not provided.
Spatial Description
Queensland, Australia 
Temporal Coverage
From 2015-12-01 to on going 
Spatial Resolution

Data not provided.

Vertical Extent

Data not provided.

Data Quality Assessment Scope
1) All the data described here has been generated from the analysis of Level 1A Landsat OLI and Sentinel Level 1C (see Publications: Flood (2017)). 2) The seasonal fractional cover model output was compared to 1500 field sites. 
Data Quality Report
Data not provided. 
Data Quality Assessment Outcome
1) The Sentinel-2 Data Quality Report from ESA indicates that positional accuracy is on the order of 12 m. The USGS aims to provide Landsat image-to-image registration with an accuracy of 12m. 2) The fractional cover model (based on Landsat) achieved an overall model Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 11.6% against field reference sites. 
ANZSRC - FOR
Climate change impacts and adaptation
Environmental management
Data Stream
Satellite Remote Sensing
GCMD Sciences
LAND USE/LAND COVER
SOILS
VEGETATION - VEGETATION COVER
Horizontal Resolution
30 meters - < 100 meters
Instruments
MSI
OLI
Parameters
bare soil fraction
non-photosynthetic vegetation fraction
photosynthetic vegetation fraction
vegetation area fraction
Platforms
LANDSAT-7
LANDSAT-8
LANDSAT-9
Sentinel-2A
Sentinel-2B
Project
TERN Landscapes
Temporal Resolution
Weekly - < Monthly
Topic
environment
Author
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Co-Author
Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government
Contact Point
Data Enquiries, Earth Observation and Social Sciences (EOSS)
Publisher
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Zhu, Z. and Woodcock, C.E. (2012). Object-based cloud and cloud shadow detection in Landsat imagery Remote Sensing of Environment 118.
Beutel Terrence S. et al (2019) VegMachine.net. online land cover analysis for the Australian rangelands. The Rangeland Journal 41
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
Flood, N. (2013) Seasonal Composite Landsat TM/ETM+ Images Using the Medoid (a Multi-dimensional Median). Remote Sens. 2013, 5(12), 6481-6500; doi:10.3390/rs5126481
Flood, N. (2017) Comparing Sentinel-2A and Landsat 7 and 8 Using Surface Reflectance over Australia. Remote Sens. 9, no. 7
Sentinel 2 Level 1C Processing
Sentinel 2 Data Product Quality Reports
Fractional vegetation cover from Sentinel-2
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia.
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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/ 
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Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting 
It is not recommended that these data sets be used at scales more detailed than 1:100,000.