This land cover classification of Germany was created using Sentinel-2 imagery from the years 2015 to 2017 and LUCAS 2015 in-situ reference data (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/lucas). It contains seven land cover types: (1) artificial land, (2) open soil, (3) high seasonal vegetation, (4) high perennial vegetation, (5) low seasonal vegetation, (6) low perennial vegetation and (7) water with a spatial resolution of 10m x 10m. For further information, please see the following publication: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2020.102065

This dataset includes the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from Sentinel-2 imagery. Using the Google Earth Engine, all granules with a cloud cover below 60% were used as input. Cloudy pixels (referring to quality layer QA60) were masked as well. Eventually, a median mosaic was composed over the whole observation period. It was also used as input for a land cover classification (see: Land Cover DE - Sentinel-2 - Germany, 2015).

The World Settlement Footprint (WSF) 2019 is a 10m resolution binary mask outlining the extent of human settlements globally derived by means of 2019 multitemporal Sentinel-1 (S1) and Sentinel-2 (S2) imagery. Based on the hypothesis that settlements generally show a more stable behavior with respect to most land-cover classes, temporal statistics are calculated for both S1- and S2-based indices. In particular, a comprehensive analysis has been performed by exploiting a number of reference building outlines to identify the most suitable set of temporal features (ultimately including 6 from S1 and 25 from S2). Training points for the settlement and non-settlement class are then generated by thresholding specific features, which varies depending on the 30 climate types of the well-established Köppen Geiger scheme. Next, binary classification based on Random Forest is applied and, finally, a dedicated post-processing is performed where ancillary datasets are employed to further reduce omission and commission errors. Here, the whole classification process has been entirely carried out within the Google Earth Engine platform. To assess the high accuracy and reliability of the WSF2019, two independent crowd-sourcing-based validation exercises have been carried out with the support of Google and Mapswipe, respectively, where overall 1M reference labels have been collected based photointerpretation of very high-resolution optical imagery.

The Sentinel-2 fractional vegetation cover (fCover) product for the Netherlands was produced as part of the NextGEOSS project at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The goal is to derive abundance maps from atmospherically corrected Sentinel-2 multispectral images for: photosynthetically active vegetation (PV); and for combined non-photosynthetically active vegetation (NPV) and bare soil (BS). The fCover product for the Netherlands has been generated by processing 10 cloud-free Sentinel-2 tiles which covered the country on 8 September 2016. The map has a spatial resolution of 60m x 60m. The Sentinel-2 scene classification layer was used to ensure that the spectral unmixing was only performed on areas of vegetation or soil. The abundance maps were made by performing MESMA unmixing on each pixel from an endmember library of PV and combined NPV + BS spectra. The purest pixels in a scene, called endmembers, were extracted using the Spatial-Spectral Endmember Extraction (SSEE) approach. The PV and NPV+BS endmembers were classified with a random forest approach and selected to form the spectral library. The spectral library was used in the µMESMA unmixing to get the PV and NPV+BS abundances.

This landcover map was produced with a classification method developed in the project incora (Inwertsetzung von Copernicus-Daten für die Raumbeobachtung, mFUND Förderkennzeichen: 19F2079C) in cooperation with ILS (Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH) and BBSR (Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung) funded by BMVI (Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure). The goal of incora is an analysis of settlement and infrastructure dynamics in Germany based on Copernicus Sentinel data. This classification is based on a time-series of monthly averaged, atmospherically corrected Sentinel-2 tiles (MAJA L3A-WASP: https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/maps/sentinel2:l3a:wasp; DLR (2019): Sentinel-2 MSI - Level 2A (MAJA-Tiles)- Germany). It consists of the following landcover classes: 10: forest 20: low vegetation 30: water 40: built-up 50: bare soil 60: agriculture Potential training and validation areas were automatically extracted using spectral indices and their temporal variability from the Sentinel-2 data itself as well as the following auxiliary datasets: - OpenStreetMap (Map data copyrighted OpenStreetMap contributors and available from htttps://www.openstreetmap.org) - Copernicus HRL Imperviousness Status Map 2018 (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2018, European Environment Agency (EEA)) - S2GLC Land Cover Map of Europe 2017 (Malinowski et al. 2020: Automated Production of Land Cover/Use Map of Europe Based on Sentinel-2 Imagery. Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3523; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213523) - Germany NUTS administrative areas 1:250000 (© GeoBasis-DE / BKG 2020 / dl-de/by-2-0 / https://gdz.bkg.bund.de/index.php/default/nuts-gebiete-1-250-000-stand-31-12-nuts250-31-12.html) - Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by mundialis Processing was performed for blocks of federal states and individual maps were mosaicked afterwards. For each class 100,000 pixels from the potential training areas were extracted as training data. An exemplary validation of the classification results was perfomed for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia as its open data policy allows for direct access to official data to be used as reference. Rules to convert relevant ATKIS Basis-DLM object classes to the incora nomenclature were defined. Subsequently, 5.000 reference points were randomly sampled and their classification in each case visually examined and, if necessary, revised to obtain a robust reference data set. The comparison of this reference data set with the incora classification yielded the following results: overall accuracy: 88.4% class: user's accuracy / producer's accuracy (number of reference points n) forest: 95.0% / 93.8% (1410) low vegetation: 73.4% / 86.5% (844) water: 98.5% / 92.8% (69) built-up: 98.9% / 95.8% (983) bare soil: 23.9% / 82.9% (41) agriculture: 94.6% / 83.2% (1653) Incora report with details on methods and results: pending

The product shows tree canopy cover loss in Germany between January 2018 and April 2021 at monthly temporal and 10 m spatial resolution. The basic principle behind this map is to compute monthly composites of the disturbance index (DI, Healey et al. 2005), a spectral index sensitive to forest disturbance, from all available Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data with less than 80 % cloud cover. These monthly composites are then compared to a median composite of the DI for 2017, which serves as a reference. After applying a threshold to the difference image, the time series of detected losses is checked for consistency. Only losses recorded continuously in all observations of a pixel until the end of the time series are considered. The dataset does not differentiate between the drivers of the losses. It depicts areas of natural disturbances (windthrow, fire, droughts, insect infestation) as well as sanitation and salvage logging, and regular forest harvest. The full description of the method and results can be found in Thonfeld et al. (2022).

This collection contains synthesized Sentinel-2 Level 3A surface reflectances for Germany on a monthly basis computed by the WASP processor (which utilizes L2A products derived from the MAJA processor). During the Level 3A processing, atmospherically corrected data from a predefined time interval are collected, weighted based on temporal distance and integrated to a new data set with the aim of removing clouds. Thereby, monthly Sentinel-2 Level 3A composites are provided for whole Germany. Please see https://logiciels.cnes.fr/en/content/maja for additional information on the MAJA product. Further Sentinel-2 Level 3A data computed using MAJA are available on the following website: https://theia.cnes.fr

The product shows forest structure information on canopy height, total canopy cover and Above-ground biomass density (AGBD) in Germany as annual products from 2017 to 2022 in 10 m spatial resolution. The products were generated using a machine learning modelling approach that combines complementary spaceborne remote sensing sensors, namely GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation; NASA; full-waveform LiDAR), Sentinel-1 (Synthetic-Aperture-Radar; ESA, C-band) and Sentinel-2 (Multispectral Instrument; ESA; VIS-NIR-SWIR). Sample estimates on forest structure from GEDI were modelled in 10 m spatial resolution as annual products based on spatio-temporal composites from Sentinel-1 and -2 for six years (2017 to 2022). The derived products are the first consistent data sets on canopy height, total canopy cover and AGBD for Germany which enable a quantitative assessment of recent forest structure dynamics, e.g. in the context of repeated drought events since 2018. The full description of the method and results can be found in the publication of Kacic et al. (2023).

This collection contains Sentinel-2 Level 2A surface reflectances, which are computed for the country of Germany using the time-series based MAJA processor. During the Level 2A processing, the data are corrected for atmospheric effects and clouds and their shadows are detected. The MAJA L2A product is available online for the last 12 months. Further data are kept in the archive and are available upon request. Please see https://logiciels.cnes.fr/en/content/maja for additional information on the MAJA product. The MAJA product offers an alternative to the official ESA L2A product and has been processed with consideration of the characteristics of the Sentinel-2 mission (fast collection of time series, constant sensor perspective, and global coverage). Assumptions about the temporal constancy of the ground cover are taken into account for a robust detection of clouds and a more flexible determination of aerosol properties. As a result, an improved determination of the reflectance of sunlight at the earth's surface (pixel values of the multispectral image) is derived. Further Sentinel-2 Level 2A data computed using MAJA are available on the following website: https://theia.cnes.fr

This landcover map was produced as an intermediate result in the course of the project incora (Inwertsetzung von Copernicus-Daten für die Raumbeobachtung, mFUND Förderkennzeichen: 19F2079C) in cooperation with ILS (Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH) and BBSR (Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung) funded by BMVI (Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure). The goal of incora is an analysis of settlement and infrastructure dynamics in Germany based on Copernicus Sentinel data. This classification is based on a time-series of monthly averaged, atmospherically corrected Sentinel-2 tiles (MAJA L3A-WASP: https://geoservice.dlr.de/web/maps/sentinel2:l3a:wasp; DLR (2019): Sentinel-2 MSI - Level 2A (MAJA-Tiles)- Germany). It consists of the following landcover classes: 10: forest 20: low vegetation 30: water 40: built-up 50: bare soil 60: agriculture Potential training and validation areas were automatically extracted using spectral indices and their temporal variability from the Sentinel-2 data itself as well as the following auxiliary datasets: - OpenStreetMap (Map data copyrighted OpenStreetMap contributors and available from htttps://www.openstreetmap.org) - Copernicus HRL Imperviousness Status Map 2018 (© European Union, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 2018, European Environment Agency (EEA)) - S2GLC Land Cover Map of Europe 2017 (Malinowski et al. 2020: Automated Production of Land Cover/Use Map of Europe Based on Sentinel-2 Imagery. Remote Sens. 2020, 12(21), 3523; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213523) - Germany NUTS administrative areas 1:250000 (© GeoBasis-DE / BKG 2020 / dl-de/by-2-0 / https://gdz.bkg.bund.de/index.php/default/nuts-gebiete-1-250-000-stand-31-12-nuts250-31-12.html) - Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by mundialis Processing was performed for blocks of federal states and individual maps were mosaicked afterwards. For each class 100,000 pixels from the potential training areas were extracted as training data. An exemplary validation of the classification results was perfomed for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia as its open data policy allows for direct access to official data to be used as reference. Rules to convert relevant ATKIS Basis-DLM object classes to the incora nomenclature were defined. Subsequently, 5.000 reference points were randomly sampled and their classification in each case visually examined and, if necessary, revised to obtain a robust reference data set. The comparison of this reference data set with the incora classification yielded the following results: overall accuracy: 88.4% class: user's accuracy / producer's accuracy (number of reference points n) forest: 96.7% / 94.3% (1410) low vegetation: 70.6% / 84.0% (844) water: 98.5% / 94.2% (69) built-up: 98.2% / 89.8% (983) bare soil: 19.7% / 58.5% (41) agriculture: 91.7% / 85.3% (1653) Incora report with details on methods and results: pending