Suomi NPP Surface Type Environmental Data Record – a Continuity of EOS MODIS Land Cover Product

Abstract:

The accurate representation of actual terrestrial surface types from regional to global scales is an important element for many applications. Suomi NPP VIIRS surface type environmental data record (EDR) product, which inherited the development of MODIS land cover products from the NASA’s EOS mission, provides consistent global land cover classification information in 1-km resolution. Although the S-NPP VIIRS sensor has different specification with those from MODIS, the development of the new NPP surface type EDR basically followed the same processes used in the creation of the MODIS collection 5 land cover products. NPP VIIRS daily surface reflectance data were composited into monthly data, and then annual metrics, and a C5.0 decision tree classifier was used to generate the global gridded surface type classification map in the 17 classes IGBP scheme. Besides the static surface type classification map, the surface type EDR also included the dynamic snow/ice, active fire, and vegetation fraction data for every VIIRS observation, which is a major difference to the MODIS land cover products. The validation of the new VIIRS surface type product also followed the same protocol that was used by the MODIS collection 5 land cover product. Stratified random sampling was used to collect validation sites, and high resolution imagery from Google Earth/Map was used as the major reference in visual interpretations. Preliminary validation results showed that 73.92% classification accuracy has been achieved, which exceeds the product’s required 70% threshold.