National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service(NESDIS)

Global Monthly AVHRR Climatology Over Land
Clear-sky top-of-the-atmosphere variables


by Garik Gutman, Dan Tarpley, Aleksandr Ignatov, NOAA/NESDIS Satellite Research Laboratory, Camp Springs, Maryland
and Steve Olson, Research and Data Systems Corporation, Greenbelt, Maryland.


This is Volume 3 in the Global Change Data Base:
Editor David Hastings, NOAA/NESDIS National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado

This directory contains the documentation on Matthews' Vegetation, Land Use, and Seasonal Albedo published in the Global Ecosystems Database:


JJKineman and MAOhrenschall, editors
Global Ecosystems Database
Boulder, Colorado
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center
1992
*MATTHEWS VEGETATION, LAND USE, AND ALBEDO_help
        Global Ecosystems Database Disc A: Chapter 7

       Matthews Vegetation, Land Use, and Seasonal Albedo

                         Vegetation Type
                      Cultivation Intensity
                         Seasonal Albedo

                      DATA-SET DESCRIPTION

Data-Set Name: Matthews Vegetation, Land Use, and Seasonal Albedo

Principal Investigator:  Elaine Matthews
                    NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Scientific Reference:    (* reprint on CD-ROM)
+    Matthews, E., 1983. "Global vegetation and land use: New
          high resolution data bases for climate studies."
          Journal of Climatology and Applied Meteorology, vol.
          22, pp. 474-487.

SOURCE

Source Data Citation:
     Matthews, E., 1983. Global Vegetation, Land-Use, and
          Seasonal Albedo [NASA Goddard Institute for Space
          Studies].  Digital Raster Data on a 1-degree Geographic
          (lat/long) 180x360 grid. Boulder, CO: National Center
          for Atmospheric Research. 9 track tape, 0.8 MB

Contributor:
     Dr. Elaine Matthews
     NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
     Institute for Space Studies
     2880 Broadway
     New York, NY 10025 USA

Distributor:
     NCAR

Vintage:
     circa 1980

Lineage:
     (1)  Principal Investigator:
          Elaine Matthews
          NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies
     (2)  Received from:
          Data Support Section
          National Center for Atmospheric Research
          Boulder, CO

ORIGINAL DESIGN

Variables:
     (1)  Vegetation, representing natural (pre-agricultural)
          vegetation based on the UNESCO (1973) class system.
     (2)  Cultivation Intensity derived from land use data,
          representing areal extent of presently cultivated land
          in the 1-degree cells.
     (3)  Seasonal Albedo, as present integrated surface albedo
          for January, April, July, October for snow-free
          conditions except for permanently snow-covered
          continental ice, incorporating natural vegetation and
          cultivation characteristics from the vegetation and
          cultivation-intensity data sets.
     NOTE: Data are included for land areas only, including
     continental ice (Water, including oceans and lakes, are
     coded 0).

Origin:
     digitized from numerous published sources and satellite
     imagery (see Primary Documentation)

Geographic Reference:
     latitude/longitude

Geographic Coverage:
     Global
     Maximum Latitude:   +90 degrees (N)
     Minimum Latitude:   -90 degrees (S)
     Maximum Longitude:  +180 degrees (E)
     Minimum Longitude:  -180 degrees (W)

Geographic Sampling:
     integrated values for 1 degree grid cells

Time Period:
     circa 1950's through 1970's

Temporal Sampling:
     Modern composite of available data

INTEGRATED DATA-SET

Data-Set Citation:
     Matthews, E. 1992. Global Vegetation, Land-Use, and Seasonal
          Albedo. Digital Raster Data on a 1-degree Geographic
          (lat/long) 180x360 grid. In: Global Ecosystems Database
          Version 1.0: Disc A. Boulder, CO:  NOAA National
          Geophysical Data Center. 6 independent single-attribute
          spatial layers on CD-ROM,1.6 MB. [first published in 1983]

Analyst:
     Mark Ohrenschall

Projection:
     Geographic (lat/long), GED window (see User's Guide).

Spatial Representation:
     integrated values for 1-degree grid cells

Temporal Representation:
     Modern composite

Data Representation:
     (1)  Vegetation Type:    1-byte integers: integrated type
          classes for 1-degree cells.
     (2)  Cultivation Intensity:   1-byte integers: classes (0-5)
          of areal extent within 1-degree cells.
     (3)  Seasonal Albedo:    2-byte integers: percent (x 100)
          integrated albedo.

Layers and Attributes:
     6 independent single-attribute spatial layers

Compressed Data Volume:
     45,646 bytes

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES    (* reprint on CD-ROM)
+    Matthews, E. 1983.  "Vegetation, Land-Use and Seasonal
          Albedo Data Sets: Documentation of Archived Data Tape."
          NASA Technical Memorandum #86107.
     Matthews E., 1985.  "Atlas of archived vegetation, land-use,
          and seasonal albedo data sets."  NASA Technical
          Memorandum #86199.

                        TECHNICAL REPORT

Mark A. Ohrenschall
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center
Boulder, CO

The Matthews data were in a lat/long projection on a one-degree
grid bounded by 90 degrees North, 90 degrees South, 180 degrees
West, and 180 degrees East.  The data-sets consisted of three
files, VEGTYPE, CULTINT, and ALBEDO.  All files were in ASCII
fixed field format, with cell sequencing scanning left to right,
bottom to top in the one-degree grids.  The VEGTYPE and CULTINT
files consisted of a sequence of two-digit integers and the
ALBEDO file consisted of a sequence of four-digit floating point
numbers (2 decimal places).  The four albedo grids were stacked
together in the ALBEDO file.

Programs were written to read each file and write the appropriate
values into an IDRISI raster data file in ASCII (for inspection),
and then converted to binary.  All grids were then inverted to
place North at the top.  The four seasonal albedo files were then
windowed from the stacked data file, multiplied by 100 and
converted to byte-binary data types.

The original numerical values are thus preserved, except for
scaling of the albedos to allow byte storage.  All final data
files were inspected for agreement with the original data.
*MATTHEWS VEGETATION, LAND USE, AND ALBEDO
ANCILLARY ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
Matthews Vegetation Type #*MATTHEWS VEGETATION TYPE
Matthews Cultivation Intensity #\data\ncillary\macult.img
Matthews Seasonal Albedo #*MATTHEWS SEASONAL ALBEDO
Scanned Documentation #*MA SCANNED DOCUMENTATION
*MA SCANNED DOCUMENTATION_help
The scanned documentation noted here is contained in the \document
directory on the CD-ROM as .gif files. These files can be read by
any computer program that reads PC Paintbrush  format files.
The GeoVu software provided on this CD-ROM contains such a utility.

To use the GeoVu utility, merely select the appropriate file from
this menu, using the "Open Data" option that you have been using to
this point. 

If you are VERY NEW to GeoVu, you can open a file by

1. Selecting "File" from the options at the top of your screen.

2. After selecting "File" select "Open Data" from the options that 
   appear in the pull-down menu.

3. Follow the hierarchy of menu paths to the data of your choice.

4. When the hierarchy leads you to a topic "Scanned Documentation"
merely select that topic. The next topic should read "Page 1, Page
2,... etc." or "Paper 1 Page 1, Paper 1 Page 2, .... Paper 2 Page
1.... etc. You can select the pages manually, or create a "slide
show" under the Utilities option at the top of the screen. The
first time the .gif file displays it might be reduced in size. This
is a "feature" of current versions of GeoVu that might be improved
in the future. If you redisplay the image (by selecting "Search"
from the options at the top of the screen, then "Create" from the
menu thus pulled down, you can modify the parameter that sets the
sampling rate from "n" [usually 2, 3, 4, or 5] to 1). This will
give you full resolution display of the scanned documentation. 

It should be noted that this scanned documentation is a compromise.
We originally attempted to use optical character recognition
software to convert the scanned documentation to more usable text.
However, the technology was too immature at the time of scanning
(1992) to use successfully. Indeed, as of this writing (late 1995)
the technology is still too immature for convenient application to
this problem.

Thus, we present the scanned documentation as images.

NOTE: Many of the original documents are not copyright, and may be
reproduced freely. However, several other documents ARE copyright.
The National Geophysical Data Center has obtained permission to
reproduce all documents with a valid copyright. However, this
permission does not pass automatically to anyone else. Thus, though
all of the data on this CD-ROM are unrestricted, much of the
scanned documentation (which contains copyright notices) may not be
distributed further, without permission of the copyright holder, or
without a dontribution made to the Copyright Clearance Center under
the rules noted in the individual papers. (Also note that a few
documents authored by U. S. Government employees or contractors as
part of their work for the Government, had copyrights claimed by
the journals that published the papers. Such documents are not
subject to copyright, and the copyright claims of said journals
have been determined to be meritless.)

*MA SCANNED DOCUMENTATION
MATTHEWS VEGETATION, LAND USE, AND ALBEDO
Page 1 #\document\ncillary\ma\ma_01.gif
Page 2 #\document\ncillary\ma\ma_02.gif
Page 3 #\document\ncillary\ma\ma_03.gif
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*MATTHEWS VEGETATION TYPE_help
DATA ELEMENT:  Vegetation Type

STRUCTURE:
     Raster Data File:1-degree 180x360 GED grid (see User's Guide)

SERIES:
     NONE

SPATIAL META-DATA:
MAVEG.DOC
file title  : Matthews Vegetation Types
data type   : byte
file type   : binary
columns     : 360
rows        : 180
ref. system : lat/long
ref. units  : deg
unit dist.  : 1.0000000
min. X      : -180.0000000
max. X      : 180.0000000
min. Y      : -90.0000000
max. Y      : 90.0000000
pos'n error : unknown
resolution  : 1.0000000
min. value  : 0
max. value  : 31
value units : classed
value error : unknown
flag value  : none
flag def'n  : none
legend cats : 33
category  0 :  Water (including lake and ocean)
category  1 :  TER Tropical evergreen rainforest, mangrove forest
category  2 :  TES Tropical/subtropical evergreen seasonal broadleaved forest
category  3 :  SER Subtropical evergreen rainforest
category  4 :  TSP Temperate/subpolar evergreen rainforest
category  5 :  TSB Temperate evergreen seasonal broadleaved forest, 
                   summer rain
category  6 :  EBS Evergreen broadleaved sclerophyllous forest, 
                   winter rain
category  7 :  TEN Tropical/subtropical evergreen needleleaved forest
category  8 :  TSE Temperate/subpolar evergreen needleleaved forest
category  9 :  TSD Tropical/subtropical drought-deciduous forest
category 10 :  CDE Cold-deciduous forest, with evergreens
category 11 :  CDF Cold-deciduous forest, without evergreens
category 12 :  XFW Xeromorphic forest/woodland
category 13 :  ESW Evergreen broadleaved sclerophyllous woodland
category 14 :  ENW Evergreen needleleaved woodland
category 15 :  TDD Tropical/subtropical drought-deciduous woodland
category 16 :  CDW Cold-deciduous woodland
category 17 :  EBT Evergreen broadleaved
                   shrubland/thicket, evergreen dwarf-shrubland
category 18 :  ENM Evergreen needleleaved or
                   microphyllous shrubland/thicket
category 19 :  DDS Drought-deciduous shrubland/thicket
category 20 :  CDS Cold-deciduous subalpine/subpolar
                   shrubland, cold-deciduous dwarf shrubland
category 21 :  XSD Xeromorphic shrubland/dwarf shrubland
category 22 :  ATM Arctic/alpine tundra, mossy bog
category 23 :  TGW Tall/medium/short grassland with 10-
                   40% woody tree cover
category 24 :  TGV Tall/medium/short grassland with
                   <10% woody tree cover or tuft-plant cover
category 25 :  TGS Tall/medium/short grassland with shrub cover
category 26 :  TGN Tall grassland, no woody cover
category 27 :  MGN Medium grassland, no woody cover
category 28 :  MSG Meadow, short grassland, no woody cover
category 29 :  FFO Forb formations
category 30 :  DES Desert
category 31 :  ICE Ice
category 32 :  CUL Cultivation

ATTRIBUTE META-DATA:
NONE

NOTES:
*MATTHEWS VEGETATION TYPE
MATTHEWS VEGETATION, LAND USE, AND ALBEDO
Vegetation Type #\data\ncillary\maveg.img
*MATTHEWS CULTIVATION INTENSITY_help
DATA ELEMENT:  Cultivation Intensity

STRUCTURE:
     Raster Data File:1-degree 180x360 GED grid(see User's Guide)

SERIES:
     NONE

SPATIAL META-DATA:
MACULT.DOC
file title  : Matthews Cultivation Intensity
data type   : byte
file type   : binary
columns     : 360
rows        : 180
ref. system : lat/long
ref. units  : deg
unit dist.  : 1.0000000
min. X      : -180.0000000
max. X      : 180.0000000
min. Y      : -90.0000000
max. Y      : 90.0000000
pos'n error : unknown
resolution  : 1.0000000
min. value  : 0
max. value  : 5
value units : classed
value error : unknown
flag value  : none
flag def'n  : none
legend cats : 6
category  0 : 0 Water     (including lake and ocean)
category  1 : 1   0%
category  2 : 2  20%
category  3 : 3  50%
category  4 : 4  75%
category  5 : 5 100%

ATTRIBUTE META-DATA:
NONE

NOTES:

*MATTHEWS SEASONAL ALBEDO_help
DATA ELEMENT:  Seasonal Albedo

STRUCTURE:
     Raster Data File:1-degree 180x360 GED grid(see User's Guide)

SERIES:
     four characteristic seasons

SPATIAL META-DATA:
MALBFA.DOC

file title  : Matthews Fall Albedo (% X 100)
data type   : integer
file type   : binary
columns     : 360
rows        : 180
ref. system : lat/long
ref. units  : deg
unit dist.  : 1.0000000
min. X      : -180.0000000
max. X      : 180.0000000
min. Y      : -90.0000000
max. Y      : 90.0000000
pos'n error : unknown
resolution  : 1.0000000
min. value  : 0
max. value  : 7500
value units : percentage X 100
value error : unknown
flag value  : none
flag def'n  : none
legend cats : 0

File Series Parameters:
File      Season  Minimum   Maximum
MALBFA    Fall       0         7500
MALBSM    Summer     0         7500
MALBSP    Spring     0         7500
MALBWN    Winter     0         7500

ATTRIBUTE META-DATA:
NONE

NOTES:
*MATTHEWS SEASONAL ALBEDO
MATTHEWS VEGETATION, LAND USE, AND ALBEDO
Fall Seasonal Albedo #\data\ncillary\malbfa.img
Summer Seasonal Albedo #\data\ncillary\malbsm.img
Spring Seasonal Albedo #\data\ncillary\malbsp.img
Winter Seasonal Albedo #\data\ncillary\malbwn.img


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