GLOBAL LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION BY REMOTE-SENSING - PRESENT CAPABILITIES AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

Reliable information on global land cover is required to assist the solution of a wide range of environmental problems. Information from conventional ground-based data has significant deficiencies as demonstrated by an analysis of these sources. Data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer has been used to carry out land cover classification at continental scales. The specific data sets that have been used, have substantial limitations and the need for the use of alternate data bases is outlined. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) of the Earth Observing System (EOS) will be a substantially better instrument in terms of several spectral, radiometric, and geometric properties than the AVHRR. However, in terms of its total field of view and frequency of imaging, the instrument will be comparable to the AVHRR for global land cover monitoring.