Improved land mask for satellite remote sensing of oceans and inland waters

Published: 1 September 2025| Version 2 | DOI: 10.17632/9r93m9s7cw.2
Contributors:
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Description

This data set describes an improved global land/water mask for satellite ocean color studies in a medium resolution (~230m/pixel; or 480 pixels per degree of longitude or latitude), which was derived from an earlier version (dating back to 2021, https://doi.org/10.17632/9r93m9s7cw.1), and updated to reflect recent changes in mostly coastal and inland water cover. Please acknowledge any use of this data set by citing the following reference, as well as any subsequent derived work documenting any updates: K. Mikelsons, M. Wang, X. Wang, and L. Jiang, Global land mask for satellite ocean color remote sensing, Remote Sens. Environ., 257, 112356 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112356 The earlier version of this data set was derived from five data sources described in the following references: [1] Carroll, M. L., Townshend, J. R., DiMiceli, C. M., Noojipady, P., and Sohlberg, R. A. (2009), A new global raster water mask at 250 m resolution, Int. J. Digit. Earth, 2, 291–308. [2] Carroll, M. L., DiMiceli, C. M., Townshend, J. R., Sohlberg, R. A., Elders, A. I., Devadiga, S., Sayer, A. M., and Levy, R. C. (2017), Development of an operational land water mask for MODIS Collection 6, and influence on downstream data products, Int. J. Digit. Earth, 10, 207–218. [3] Pekel, J. F., Cottam, A., Gorelick, N., and Belward, A. S. (2016), High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes, Nature, 540, 418–422. [4] Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S. A., Tyukavina, A., Thau, D., Stehman, S. V., Goetz, S. J., Loveland, T. R., Kommareddy, A., Egorov, A., Chini, L., Justice, C. O., and Townsend, J. R. G. (2013), High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change, Science, 342, 850–853. [5] www.OpenStreetMap.org

Files

Steps to reproduce

Please see K. Mikelsons, M. Wang, X. Wang, and L. Jiang, Global land mask for satellite ocean color remote sensing, Remote Sens. Environ., 257, 112356 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112356

Institutions

NOAA National Environment Satellite Data and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research

Categories

Natural Sciences

Licence