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    • Global Monthly and Seasonal Urban and Land Backscatter Time Series, 1993-2020

    Metadata Updated: April 24, 2025

    The Global Monthly and Seasonal Urban and Land Backscatter Time Series, 1993-2020, is a multi-sensor, multi-decadal, data set of global microwave backscatter, for 1993 to 2020. It assembles data from C-band sensors onboard the European Remote Sensing Satellites (ERS-1 and ERS-2) covering 1993-2000, Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) onboard EUMETSAT satellites for 2007-2020, and the Ku-band sensor onboard the QuikSCAT satellite for 1999-2009, onto a common spatial grid (0.05 degree latitude /longitude resolution) and time step (both monthly and seasonal). Data are provided for all land (except high latitudes and islands), and for urban grid cells, based on a specific masking that removes grid cells with > 50% open water or < 20% built land. The all-land data allows users to choose and evaluate other urban masks. There is an offset between C-band and Ku-band backscatter from both vegetated and urban surfaces that is not spatially constant. There is a strong linear correlation (overall R-squared value = 0.69) between 2015 ASCAT urban backscatter and a continental-scale gridded product of building volume, across 8,450 urban grid cells (0.05 degree resolution) from large cities in Europe, China, and the United States.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date May 30, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date April 24, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from NASA Data.json

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date May 30, 2023
    Metadata Updated Date April 24, 2025
    Publisher SEDAC
    Maintainer
    Identifier C2492953186-SEDAC
    Data First Published 2022-09-30
    Language en-US
    Data Last Modified 2025-04-23
    Category USPAT, geospatial
    Public Access Level public
    Bureau Code 026:00
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id c4647c5f-bf5b-461c-aa90-3d8ea855b107
    Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
    Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
    Homepage URL https://doi.org/10.7927/gr2e-dh86
    Metadata Type geospatial
    Old Spatial -180.0 -90.0 180.0 90.0
    Program Code 026:001
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash d2b1f2d604bd78d144a1acd47196cbdd65b535d08ab3b386bbfca751eec30fc2
    Source Schema Version 1.1
    Spatial
    Temporal 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z/2020-12-31T00:00:00Z

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