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Seasonal cover deciles - Landsat, JRSRP algorithm, Australia Coverage 

Ver: 1.0
Status of Data: superseded
Update Frequency: notPlanned
Security Classification: unclassified
Record Last Modified: 2025-12-02
Viewed 2000 times
Accessed 75 times
Dataset Created: 2013-11-25
Dataset Published: 2021-04-15
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URLHTTPVegmachine Timeseries ViewerHTTPSeasonal Green Cover Deciles by HTTPHTTPSeasonal Total Cover Deciles by HTTPHTTPseasonal_cover_deciles_landsat_filenaming_convention.txtHTTPro-crate-metadata.json
How to cite this collection:
Department of the Environment, T. & Joint Remote Sensing Research Program (2021). Seasonal cover deciles - Landsat, JRSRP algorithm, Australia Coverage. Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/7d3cd98f-32da-40d4-9a3f-d89eb76347f9 
This product has been superseded and will not be processed from early 2023.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/169dbb12-846f-4536-9dab-e31378d16b41. Two fractional cover decile products, green cover and total cover, are currently produced from the historical timeseries of seasonal fractional cover images. These products compare, at the per-pixel level, the level of cover for the specific season of interest against the long term cover for that same season. For each pixel, all cover values for the relevant seasons within a baseline period (1988 to 2013) are classified into deciles. The cover value for the pixel in the season of interest is then classified according to the decile in which it falls. 
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. 
Purpose
These decile datasets are an excellent way of identifying areas of low or high cover, relative to what is typical for that location and season. 
Lineage
Summary of processing: Seasonal composite of fractional cover > baseline statistics > seasonal cover deciles.
Further details are provided in the Methods section. 
Method DocumentationData not provided.
Procedure Steps

1. 

Rankings: The seasonal fractional cover timeseries for the period Autumn (Mar-May) 1988 to Summer (Dec-Feb) 2012/2013 is used as a baseline. Every season is ranked against every available seasonal value within the baseline period, for the corresponding season, on a per-pixel basis. Rankings are expressed as deciles, so a cover value which falls within the bottom 10% of values in the baseline period is given as decile 1, and a cover value which falls in the top 10% is given as decile 10. Two versions of this are created – one which ranks total cover (green + non-green), and one which ranks only the green fraction. Because the seasonal composites are used, the data are representative of the season, and robust against outliers. The baseline period is sampled evenly across the whole period, so there is no bias towards the years with more imagery available. 

2. 

Example: For example, a total cover value for Spring 2013 is ranked against the total cover in all the Spring images in the baseline period. A green cover value in Spring 2013 is ranked against the green cover fractions in all the Spring images in the baseline period. 

3. 

Seasonal fractional cover process: Refer to the Methods section in Seasonal fractional cover - Landsat, JRSRP algorithm, Australia coverage https://portal.tern.org.au/22026 

Australia
Temporal Coverage
From 1987-12-01 to on going 
Spatial Resolution

Data not provided.

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 1500 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 12m. Refer to the L8 Data Users Handbook for more detail. 2) The fractional cover model 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
GCMD Sciences
BIOSPHERE - VEGETATION COVER
LAND SURFACE - LAND USE/LAND COVER
Horizontal Resolution
30 meters - < 100 meters
Parameters
photosynthetic vegetation fraction
vegetation area fraction
Temporal Resolution
Seasonal
Topic
environment
Author
Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Contact Point
Data Enquiries, Earth Observation and Social Sciences (EOSS)
Publisher
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Rights Holder
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
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Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia.
Contact Us
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
It is not recommended that these data sets be used at scales more detailed than 1:100,000. 
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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