Introducing a landcover map of Siberia derived from MERIS and MODIS data

The main focus of This work is upon deriving a new land-cover map over the Siberia region as part of the EU funded SIBERIA-II project. A robust and fully automated classification of the Siberia region is presented based upon data from the MODIS and MERIS satellite sensors. Twenty land-cover classes are identified. A key factor to the success of the classification process has been the high quality of the MODIS surface reflectance composites. However, the increased spatial resolution of the MODIS sensor (500 m) and MERIS sensor (300 m) provides the most striking results when compared with previous land-cover maps. A number of examples are presented where the interpretation of the thematic result fundamentally changes when using the higher resolution data. Finally, some suggestions for future global land-cover projects are made.