Global forest disturbance alert system (GloF-DAS)
Article Type: News from the Net From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 23, Issue 6.
The GloF-DAS provides data on forest disturbance globally on a quarterly basis. Reliable maps of global forest cover change are frequently years out-of-date. Consequently, there is a pressing need to develop techniques for monitoring and verifying land cover change and forest disturbances in a timely,low-cost, and accurate manner. Satellite remote sensing from instruments such as NASA's moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) offers a consistent and cost-effective method for mapping forest cover change. MODIS data are obtained freely with global daily cover products.
A new MODIS product called the “Quarterly Indicator of Cover Change” (QUICC)has been developed at NASA Ames Research Center by the CASA ecosystem modeling team. The QUICC product is based on comparison of MODIS global vegetation index images at the exact same time period each year (ending of March, June,September, and December) in consecutive years. The CASA team updates its global QUICC products as soon as the newest quarterly MODIS worldwide VI image at five-km spatial resolution is available. Further details can be seen at:http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation-tracker/
