This raster layer portrays general forest cover types for the United States in GeoTIFF format. Data were derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) composite images recorded during the 1991 growing season, with the exception of Puerto Rico, for which Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data were used. A total of 25 classes of forest cover types were interpreted from the AVHRR and TM imagery, aided by field observations and refined with ancillary data from digital elevation models. The data available through the National Atlas of the United States are in GeoTIFF format. This is a revised version of the May 2002 map layer, with a corrected shoreline for Greenland. This layer is part of the 1997-2014 edition of the National Atlas of the United States. The forest cover types map layer was developed to portray broad distribution patterns of forest cover in the United States. The data should be displayed at scales appropriate for 1:7,500,000-scale data. None. Acknowledgment of the National Atlas of the United States, the USDA Forest Service, and (or) the U.S. Geological Survey would be appreciated in products derived from these data. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.
