Seasonal Fractional Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage

Ver: 3.0

Status of Data: onGoing

Update Frequency: quarterly

Security Classification: unclassified

Dataset Published: 2022-05-03

Dataset Last Modified: 2026-08-18

Metadata viewed 1918148 times

Dataset accessed 1243 times

Metadata Created: 2022-03-28

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 (2022). Seasonal Fractional Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage. Version 3.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/0997cb3c-e2e2-45be-ac82-f5e13d24331c

Data can be accessed from the following links:

The seasonal fractional cover product shows representative values for the proportion of bare, green and non-green cover across a season. It is a spatially explicit raster product that predicts vegetation cover at medium resolution (30 m per-pixel) for each 3-month calendar season across Australia from 1987 to the present. The green and non-green fractions may include a mix of woody and non-woody vegetation.
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.

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.

Purpose

This product captures variability in fractional cover at seasonal (i.e. three-monthly) time scales, forming a consistent time series from 1987 - present. It is useful for investigating inter-annual changes in vegetation cover and analysing regional comparisons. For applications that focus on non-woody vegetation, the ground cover product, derived from fractional cover, 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.
This product is based upon the JRSRP Fractional Cover 3.0 algorithm.

Lineage

Data not provided.

Method DocumentationData not provided.

Procedure StepsData not provided.

Spatial Description

Australia

Temporal Coverage

From 1987-12-01 to on going

Spatial Resolution

Distance of 30 Metres

Vertical Extent

Data not provided.

Data Quality Assessment Scope

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.
2) The fractional cover model was compared to samples drawn from approximately 4000 field reference sites.

Data Quality Report

Data not provided.

Data Quality Assessment Outcome

1) The USGS aims to provide image-to-image registration with an accuracy of 12 m. Refer to the L8 Data Users Handbook for more detail.https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/landsat-8-data-users-handbook
2) The fractional cover model predicts the vegetation cover fractions with MAE/wMAPE/RMSE of:
bare - 6.9%/34.9%/14.5%
PV - 4.6%/37.9%/10.6%
NPV - 9.8%/25.2%/16.9%.

ANZSRC - FOR

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GCMD Sciences

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Supplemental Information

Data are available as cloud optimised GeoTIFF (COG) files. COG files are easier and more efficient for users to access data corresponding to particular areas of interest without the need to download the data first.

Resource Specific Usage

Data not provided.

Environment Description

Data not provided.

80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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/

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.

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.

Seasonal Fractional Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage

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