SAFARI 2000 Vegetation and Soils, 1-Deg (Wilson and Henderson-Sellers)

The inclusion of secondary vegetation type is particularly useful is areas with cover types which may have a fragmented distribution, such as urban development. The soil type data are classified using climatically important properties for CGMs and provide color (light, medium, or dark), texture, and drainage quality of the soil. The land cover data are compatible with the soils data forming a coherent and consistent data set.

Reliability data rank the land cover data on a 1 to 5 scale from high to low reliability. The soil reliability is ranked as one of the following: high, good, moderate, fair, or poor. Recommendations for the use of these data as well as more detailed information can be found in: Wilson, M.F. and A. Henderson-Sellers, 1985.

A Global Archive of Land Cover and Soils Data for Use in General Circulation Climate Models. Journal of Climatology, Vol.5, 119-143. More data set information can be found at: ftp://daac.ornl.gov/data/safari2k/vegetation_wetlands/vegsoils_wilhend/comp/wilhend_readme.pdf.