For complete information check the SDTS home page . There are no plans at this time to do a mass conversion to another format. Visit the NWI homepage think tank for further information and discussion. You can get to the main NWI page also from the think tank. Good detailed documentation on the Land Use and Land Cover files can be found at EROS data center .
Raster data is actually a grid of pixels, each with an assigned value.
The sharpness of the maps created from this type of data depends on the size of the pixel relative to the size of the area being mapped. One of the major uses of this type of data is analytical modeling. Modeling usually involved combining or overlaying many layers of data. GAP is an example of a project that combines data in this way. Depending on the originating data sets it may involved mathematically combining or subtracting data layers.