This folder has fractional cover datasets starting from 2001 January and actively maintained by Earth Observation Landscapes team, CSIRO.

Details of how fractional cover algorithm is applied can be seen in https://doi.org/10.4225/08/5848a3f19a7b3
It uses version 310 and Fractional cover was derived using a linear unmixing methodology (Guerschman et al. 2015). 
The method uses all 7 MODIS bands and adds log transforms and band interaction terms to account for non-linearities in the spectral mixing.
A cross-validation step was also included to select the optimal number of singular values to avoid over-fitting. 
The calibration and validation steps used 1171 field observations across Australia. Overall, the model fitted and applied to
MCD43A4 fractional cover has a root mean square error (RMSE) of 12.9%, 18.1% and 16.6% for the PV, NPV and BS
fractions respectively (percentage cover)
Version 3.1: Same as Version 3.0 with the following modifications:
1- input data changed to
MODIS Collection 6.0 (MCD43A4.006) (see source). 
2- calibration dataset expanded to include ~3022 field measurement sites across Australia.
3- overall accuracy improved to an RMSE of 11.3%, 16.1% and 14.7% for the PV, NPV and BS fractions respectively.
Monthly vegetation cover is calculated from the 8-day composites using a medoid method as described in Gill et al. 
Total Vegetation Cover anomaly represents the difference between total vegetation cover (PV+NPV) in a given month 
and the mean total vegetation cover for that month in all years available, expressed in units of cover.

For example, if the mean vegetation cover in January (2001-current year) was 40% and the vegetation cover for the pixel
in January 2018 was 30%, the anomaly for the pixel in Jan 2018 would be -10%.
Total Vegetation Cover decile represents the ranking (in ten value intervals) for the total vegetation cover in a given month
in relation to the vegetation cover in that month for all years in the time-series.
Both Total Vegetation Cover anomaly and Total Vegetation Cover decile are updated each time a new month of FC data becomes available.
The mean values for the month are calculated for the entire time series (from 2001 to the current year) and all the anomalies
and deciles for that month in all years are calculated again using the new time series.

File contains following type of data
1. Total cover anomaly and decile datasets. It uses 
   
   It has two type of files. One with native projection for each of anomaly and decile files.
   For ex. FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_anomaly.tif and FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_decile.tif)
   and another type with Australian Albers Projection (EPSG:3577) (For ex. FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_anomaly_3577.tif and FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_decile_3577.tif). 

2. Anomaly and decile type has png file format.
   It is smaller size and uses different colour ramps for anomalies and deciles. Anomaly files uses divergent RdYlBu in scale from
   -25 to 25 pixel values. Decile files use discrete five colour set and can be seen in decile.png file
   For ex. FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_anomaly.png and 
   FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2019.11.aust.006.total_cover_decile.png

File naming conventions for single band anomaly/decile file
for ex. FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2001.01.aust.006.total_cover_anomaly.tif
        <Product name> FC
        <version> v310
        <MODIS Product used> MCD43A4
        <Year starting with A> AYYYY
        <two digits month > 01
        <Country/continent> aust
        <Product type> total_cover_anomaly or total_cover_decile 
        <file format> tif
Same as above except for projection in the following file.
for ex. anomaly FC.v310.MCD43A4.A2001.01.aust.006.total_cover_anomaly_3577.tif
 like FC.8day.v310.MCD43A4.A20010415.aust.006_Tot.tif
        <Product type> total_cover_anomaly with Aus albers projection(EPSG: 3577)