Fractional Cover (FC25)

Brief description

The Fractional Cover product is derived from Geoscience Australia's Australian Reflectance Grid 25 (ARG25) product and provides a 25m scale fractional cover representation of the proportions of green or photosynthetic vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation, and bare surface cover across the Australian continent. It is generated using the algorithm developed by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program and described in Scarth et al. (2010) The FC25 product suite is currently available for every scene Landsat Thematic Mapper (Landsat 5) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (Landsat 7) scene acquired between 1986 and 2012 . Future versions of the product suite will include data from the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor aboard Landsat 8.

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: unknown

Statement: Nationally consistent information about fractional cover dynamics is essential to addressing a range of natural resource challenges. These include land management practices, air quality, soil erosion, rangeland condition and soil carbon dynamics. FC25 was made possible by new scientific and technical capabilities, the collaborative framework established by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), and the leadership and capabilities of Geoscience Australia and the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program. The long term acquisition plan supported by the Landsat program, in combination with Geoscience Australia's longstanding investment in the on-ground infrastructure required to capture Landsat imagery has made this product possible. Geoscience Australia's partnership with the National Computing Infrastructure facilities in conjunction with the development of the Australian Geoscience Data Cube a high performance data framework makes it possible to analyse the continental archive of fractional cover data. FC25 provides a consistent classification which will be an important foundation for fractional cover mapping and monitoring across Australia. It is a resource for natural resource managers, land surface process modellers, carbon modellers, rangeland managers, ecosystem scientists and policy makers.