NASA’s goal for Earth-Sun System science is to explore, discover, and understand
the Earth and Sun as one system. NASA, working with its domestic and international
partners, provides scientific data and analysis to advance our understanding of the
Earth-Sun system and its response to natural and human-induced changes.
Alteration of land cover – from urbanization, deforestation, farming, and natural events,
(which includes wildfires, vegetation succession, and flooding) – can have a major
impact on the Earth’s environment. Land cover data provide important information
for resource management, policy making, geology, agrology, tourism, demography,
sociology, forestry, and land development.
The data product used to create this origami globe is the MODIS/Terra Land Cover
Type Yearly L3 Global 0.05 Deg CMG (MOD12C1). It illustrates the International
Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) land cover classification scheme for data
collected throughout the year 2001