The GLCF develops and distributes remotely sensed satellite data and products concerned with land cover from the local to global scales. This fabulous resource is a must visit for anyone seeking small scale Global coverage for large areas. Data holdings include Landsat scenes, MODIS, ASTER, Quickbird imagery (high res) and SRTM DEMs. Primary data and products available at the GLCF are free to anyone via FTP.

The majority of users accessing GLCF datasets come from the following communities:

• Science: geography, Earth science, ecology, climatology, conservation, education
• Environmental Policy: global warming, sustainable development, risk management
• Resource Management: biodiversity assessment, forestry, protected area management, forest inventory
• Disaster Management: fire, flood and drought monitoring, disaster mitigation, food security
• Computer Science: data mining, data fusion, computer vision

GLCF research focuses on determining land cover and land cover change around the world. Land cover is the discernible vegetation, geologic, hydrologic or anthropogenic features on the planet's land surface. These features, such as forests, urban area, croplands and sand dunes, can be measured and categorized using satellite imagery. Land cover change can be assessed by comparing one area with two images taken at different dates.

Data guides are conveniently provided for users:

Note, SRTM DEMs are served up as reprocessed GeoTIFFs... sweet! Download them HERE

http://www.glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml