2015 global land cover map

ESA started working on global land-cover with the launch of Envisat, producing first GlobCover2005 and then GlobCover2009, under the GlobCover initiative.

Started in 2005 in partnership with JRC, EEA, FAO, UNEP, GOFC-GOLD and IGBP, the initiative aimed to develop a service capable of delivering global composites and land-cover maps using observations from the 300 m resolution MERIS sensor on Envisat.

This image shows the Climate Change Initiative 300 m resolution annual global land-cover time series from 1992 to 2015. This unique dataset was produced thanks to the reprocessing and the interpretation of five different satellite missions.