Tree Canopy Cover for the Circumpolar Taiga-Tundra Ecotone: 2000-2005

This data set provides a map of selected areas with defined tree canopy cover over the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone (TTE). Canopy cover was derived from the 500-meter MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) product as averaged over six years from 2000-2005 and processed as described in Ranson et al. (2011). This process identified patches of low tree canopy cover which are indicative of the transition from forest to tundra and differentiate the circumpolar taiga-tundra ecotone for the 2000-2005 period. The TTE is the Earth's longest vegetation transition zone and stretches for more than 13,400 km around Arctic North America, Scandinavia, and Eurasia. In Eurasia, the map extends from 60 degrees N to 70 degrees N, and in North America from 50 degrees N to 70 degrees N, excluding Baffin Island in northeastern Canada and the Aleutian Peninsula in southwestern Alaska. Note that for this product, taiga is being used one and the same as boreal forest.This circumpolar TTE area was classified according to VCF tree canopy cover.