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Data

Seasonal Ground 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 278329 times
Dataset accessed 569 times
Metadata Created: 2021-03-28
Metadata Last Modified: 2026-08-19
How to cite this collection:
Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Queensland Government & Joint Remote Sensing Research Program (2022). Seasonal Ground Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage. Version 3.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/fe9d86e1-54e8-4866-a61c-0422aee8c699 
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPCloud Optimised GeoTIFFs - Seasonal Ground Cover Australia
WMSground_cover_v3
HTTPLandscape Data Visualiser - Seasonal Ground Cover - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Australia Coverage
HTTPForage Report (QLD only)
HTTPVegmachine Timeseries Viewer
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URL
HTTPro-crate-metadata.json
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 for Australia from 1989 - present. 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.

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.
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.
 
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 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.
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.
 
Lineage
Data not provided. 
Method DocumentationData not provided.
Procedure StepsData not provided.
Spatial Description
Australia 
Temporal Coverage
From 1989-12-01 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 12m. Refer to the L8 Data Users Handbook for more detail.
2) The fractional cover model predicts the vegetation cover fractions with MAE/wMAPE/RMSE of:
bare - 6.9%/34.9%/14.5%
photosynthetic vegetation (PV) - 4.6%/37.9%/10.6%
non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) - 9.8%/25.2%/16.9% 
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
ETM+
OLI
TM
Parameters
bare soil fraction
non-photosynthetic vegetation fraction
photosynthetic vegetation fraction
Platforms
LANDSAT-5
LANDSAT-7
LANDSAT-8
Project
Earth Observation - Queensland Government
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Temporal Resolution
Seasonal
Topic
environment
imageryBaseMapsEarthCover
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
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. 
By Child records
Seasonal Ground Cover Summary Statistics - Landsat, JRSRP Algorithm Version 3.0, Queensland Coverage
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia.
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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/ 
Copyright 2010-2022. JRSRP. Rights owned by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Project (JRSRP).
 
It is not recommended that these data sets be used at scales more detailed than 1:100,000.
 
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.
 
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