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    • Tree Canopy Cover for the Circumpolar Taiga-Tundra Ecotone: 2000-2005

    Metadata Updated: February 5, 2026

    This data set provides a map of selected areas with defined tree canopy cover over the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone (TTE). Canopy cover was derived from the 500-meter MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) product as averaged over six years from 2000-2005 and processed as described in Ranson et al. (2011). This process identified patches of low tree canopy cover which are indicative of the transition from forest to tundra and differentiate the circumpolar taiga–tundra ecotone for the 2000–2005 period. The TTE is the Earth's longest vegetation transition zone and stretches for more than 13,400 km around Arctic North America, Scandinavia, and Eurasia. In Eurasia, the map extends from 60 degrees N to 70 degrees N, and in North America from 50 degrees N to 70 degrees N, excluding Baffin Island in northeastern Canada and the Aleutian Peninsula in southwestern Alaska. Note that for this product, taiga is being used one and the same as boreal forest.This circumpolar TTE area was classified according to VCF tree canopy cover.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date February 5, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
    Metadata Updated Date February 5, 2026
    Publisher ORNL_DAAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1218
    Data Last Modified 2026-02-03
    Category Earth Science
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id d09b08a1-a303-48dc-a4ef-b82ff3a95c59
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=Taiga_Tundra_Tree_Cover_1218&ac=true
    Old Spatial {"WestBoundingCoordinate":-180.0,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":70.0,"EastBoundingCoordinate":180.0,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":50.0},"CARTESIAN"
    Program Code 026:000
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash d6e925118923f6ecd9ef496682cc1edc426f37f83621ab4bfb03753965a0c059
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 2000-01-01/2000-01-01

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