Title
Global characterization and monitoring of forest cover using Landsat data: opportunities and challenges.
Abstract
The compilation of global Landsat data-sets and the ever-lowering costs of computing now make it feasible to monitor the Earth's land cover at Landsat resolutions of 30 m. In this article, we describe the methods to create global products of forest cover and cover change at Landsat resolutions. Nevertheless, there are many challenges in ensuring the creation of high-quality products. And we propose various ways in which the challenges can be overcome. Among the challenges are the need for atmospheric correction, incorrect calibration coefficients in some of the data-sets, the different phenologies between compilations, the need for terrain correction, the lack of consistent reference data for training and accuracy assessment, and the need for highly automated characterization and change detection. We propose and evaluate the creation and use of surface reflectance products, improved selection of scenes to reduce phenological differences, terrain illumination correction, automated training selection, and the use of information extraction procedures robust to errors in training data along with several other issues. At several stages we use Moderate Resolution Spectro-radiometer data and products to assist our analysis. A global working prototype product of forest cover and forest cover change is included.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1080/17538947.2012.713190
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DIGITAL EARTH
Keywords
Field
DocType
Landsat,land cover,forest cover change,global mapping,global monitoring
Atmospheric correction,Reference data (financial markets),Change detection,Satellite imagery,Forest cover,Terrain,Remote sensing,Spectroradiometer,Land cover,Geography
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
5
5.0
1753-8947
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
39
4.15
11
Authors
18
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
John R. Townshend137367.56
Jeffrey G. Masek228741.41
Chengquan Huang322636.44
Eric F. Vermote4526109.24
Feng Gao528740.54
Saurabh Channan613614.96
Joseph O. Sexton712213.35
Min Feng820420.90
Raghuram Narasimhan9435.35
Do Hyung Kim1024030.77
Kuan Song11394.15
Danxia Song12395.16
Xiao-Peng Song139711.26
Praveen Noojipady1417528.78
Bin Tan1520839.58
Matthew C. Hansen1618323.33
Mengxue Li17404.85
Robert E. Wolfe1837186.53