This raster layer is a georeferenced grid map image of land cover characteristics for North America, excluding Hawaii, and including the Caribbean and most of Mexico. The nominal spatial resolution is 1 km and the map layer is based on 1-km AVHRR data. The data were compiled by staff at the National Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science as part of the Global Land Cover Characterization Project. The land cover classes were produced using 1-km AVHRR data from April 1992 to March 1993. 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. These data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the continental level, and for large regional areas. The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales appropriate for 1:2,000,000-scale data. No responsibility is assumed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the use of 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.