ECOCLIMAP-II programme: A new land cover classification at 1 km from MODIS and vegetation data time series over the western Africa in the frame of AMMA project

This work presents the ECOCLIMAP-II database for western Africa, which is an upgrade for this region of the former initiative, ECOCLIMAP-I, implemented at global scale. ECOCLIMAP-II is a dual database at 1-km resolution that comprises an ecosystem classification and a coherent set of land surface parameters. This new physiographic information was especially developed in the framework of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) programme. Criteria for coherence between prevalent land cover classifications and the satellite leaf area index (LAI) between 2000 and 2007 constitute the analysis tools for setting up the ECOCLIMAP-II. The LAI and inferred fraction of vegetation are spatially distributed per land cover unit. The vegetation fraction is handled to split the land surface albedo into vegetation and soil albedo components. The reliability of the physiographic details is also confirmed through verification with land cover products of higher resolutions.