CALC-2020: a new baseline land cover map at 10 m resolution for the circumpolar Arctic

[摘要] The entire Arctic is rapidly warming, which brings in amultitude of environmental consequences far beyond the northernhigh-latitude limits. Land cover maps offer biophysical insights into theterrestrial environment and are therefore essential for understanding thetransforming Arctic in the context of anthropogenic activity and climatechange. Satellite remote sensing has revolutionized our ability to captureland cover information over large areas. However, circumpolar Arctic-scalefine-resolution land cover mapping has so far been lacking. Here, we utilizea combination of multimode satellite observations and topographic data at 10 m resolution to provide a new baseline land cover product (CALC-2020) acrossthe entire terrestrial Arctic for circa 2020. Accuracy assessments suggestthat the CALC-2020 product exhibits satisfactory performances, with overallaccuracies of 79.3 % and 67.3 %, respectively, at validation samplelocations and field/flux tower sites. The derived land cover map displaysreasonable agreement with pre-existing products, meanwhile depicting moresubtle polar biome patterns. Based on the CALC-2020 dataset, we show thatnearly half of the Arctic landmass is covered by graminoid tundra orlichen/moss. Spatially, the land cover composition exhibits regionaldominance, reflecting the complex suite of both biotic and abiotic processesthat jointly determine the Arctic landscape. The CALC-2020 product wedeveloped can be used to improve Earth system modelling and benefit theongoing efforts on sustainable Arctic land management by public andnon-governmental sectors. The CALC-2020 land cover product is freelyavailable on Science Data Bank: https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.01869 (Xu et al., 2022a).

[学科分类] 眼科学