USGS Land Cover Institute announces the availability of the State Land Cover Descriptions web site. An interactive map of the conterminous United States provides access to simple State facts and land cover descriptions. Each state includes maps of land cover, percent forest canopy, and percent impervious surface, all derived from the National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD, 2001). These State descriptions have been complied to provide a general over view for scientific researchers, policy makers, and educators to gain a basic understanding of a State's land cover and land use characteristics.

Access the State Land Cover Descriptions web page (http://landcover.usgs.gov/us_descriptions.php)

MRLC and NALC Release

The USGS is now offering a collection of Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) 2001 terrain-corrected satellite images. These scenes have been acquired by the MRLC Consortium and consist of Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data.

MRLC 2001 data are available from the USGS at no charge via a web-enabled file download or on media for $20 per file.

The MRLC 2001 data cover the conterminous United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the images are high quality and cloud cover is generally less than 10 percent. A 30-meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is included for all scenes that do not include international borders.

The MRLC consortium is a group of Federal agencies who joined together to acquire Landsat imagery and create nationally consistent land cover data. The data are available to the public through Earth Explorer, GloVis or the MRLC Consortium.

North American Landscape Characterization (NALC) data consist of Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) time-series triplicates that were acquired in 1973, 1986, and 1991 (plus or minus one year). NALC data cover selected locations throughout the conterminous United States and Mexico.

NALC data are available from the USGS via web-enabled file download. The data are also available on media for $20 per triplicate and can be searched, downloaded, and ordered through Earth Explorer or GloVis.

For more information, please contact USGS Customer Service, EROS, 800-252-4547 or custserv@usgs.gov.