JRC Tropical Moist Forests (TMF) v1.2025

This publication is a cloud-native mirror of the JRC Tropical Moist Forests (TMF) products. The pixel values of this mirror are identical to the JRC source. We re-packaged the files as Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs) and added a STAC index and a virtual icechunk cube.

Producer and source

• Producer: European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC). This publication is a derivative of the work authored by the JRC.
• Source: JRC TMF v1.2025, https://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/TMF/data. We downloaded each tile from the JRC download CGI.
• Reference: Vancutsem, C., Achard, F., Pekel, J.-F., et al. (2021). Long-term (1990-2019) monitoring of forest cover changes in the humid tropics. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe1603

Licence

Copernicus / JRC open data. Attribution is required. Name the JRC as the source. State that we re-packaged the files. The mirror does not imply endorsement by the European Commission.

Changes to Original Publication

• We re-encoded each tile as a valid COG: internal overviews (nearest neighbour), corrected IFD order, ZSTD compression.
• We flipped south-up tiles to north-up. We re-adjusted the georeferencing. We did not change the values.
• There was no resampling, no reprojection, and no changes to the data.

Coverage

Data Products

Note that the JRC publishes this product alongside the GFC2020 and GFT2020 products.

The tables below relate the stored raster value, the class description, and the colour in the colormap files. The STAC classification extension gives more details for TransitionMap_MainClasses, TransitionMap_Subtypes and UndisturbedDegradedForest. For the other three products, use the colormap and metadata files.

TransitionMap_MainClasses — uint8

AnnualChange_<YYYY> — uint8, identical legend for every year 1990–2025

UndisturbedDegradedForest — uint8

DeforestationYear / DegradationYear — uint16, discrete years 1984–2025 rendered as a colour ramp (40,146,199)→(80,8,0); 0/NoData = never deforested/degraded.

TransitionMap_Subtypes — uint8, 39 discrete classes (click to expand)

Value	Label	RGB
10	Undisturbed tropical moist forest	0,80,0
11	Bamboo-dominated forest	10,100,10
12	Undisturbed mangrove	10,90,60
21	Degraded forest, short-duration (started before 2016)	30,120,0
22	Degraded forest, short-duration (started 2016–2024)	80,150,0
23	Degraded forest, long-duration (started before 2016)	100,160,40
24	Degraded forest, long-duration (started 2016–2024)	120,170,40
25	Degraded forest, 2/3 periods (last started before 2016)	100,160,40
26	Degraded forest, 2/3 periods (last started 2016–2024)	120,170,40

Files

TILE_ID is the approximate north-west coordinate of the tile, from the JRC. Examples are N0_E20 and S10_W60. These coordinates are not exact. Use the STAC index for exact footprints.

How to read

Example of an anonymous read through the source.coop proxy. Find tiles with the STAC index, then read the COGs:

Example of a GDAL-free read with icechunk and xarray. The store references byte ranges in the COGs and copies no pixel data:

Known limitations

• The icechunk cube has one group per tile. It is not one global array. Tile pixel counts are not multiples of 512. Tile pixel counts do differ from tile to tile.
• The tile ID names a nominal 10° by 10° grid cell, for example N30_W110. The ID is not the exact raster extent. A real tile can extend past its nominal cell edge. Do not compute pixel offsets from the ID alone. Read the exact bounds from the raster file or from the STAC footprint.
• This publication mirrors six download products only. The JRC publishes other TMF layers through Earth Engine only, for example Intensity and Duration. We do not mirror these layers.
• This publication does not mirror the 10 m Hybrid Transition Map. That product is a beta release. It covers 1990 to 2022. The JRC plans a revised release of this product. The revised release will include an accuracy assessment.