[GRASSLIST:3536] How to import data from EOS

[Terry Duell]

Hullo,
I need to get some global data sets into GRASS, and it looks like some
of what I need is available from the EOS data gateway e.g. Landcover
from AVHRR (1 km), Global 30 year mean climatology, Global soil types,
MODIS/TERRA landcover type 96 day...etc.
It is not obvious what format much of this data comes in. The MODIS data
is hdf.
Has anyone any experience in importing any of these data into GRASS?
I realise that the question is rather general at this stage, but thought
it best to ask now before I spend a lot of time downloading data that I
can't use.
An alternate question could well be...is there any global data at about
1 km resolution (30 secs) with landform, landcover, vegetation type,
soils, climate (mean monthly rainfall, mean monthly temperature) which
is in formats suitable for import onto GRASS?

Thanks for your help,

Regards,
Terry Duell