Description
The Terra and Aqua combined Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Cover Dynamics (MCD12Q2) Version 6.1 data product provides global land surface phenology metrics at yearly intervals from 2001 to 2021. The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 data product is derived from time series of the 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) calculated from MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). Vegetation phenology metrics at 500 meter spatial resolution are identified for up to two detected growing cycles per year. For pixels with more than two valid vegetation cycles, the data represent the two cycles with the largest NBAR-EVI2 amplitudes.
Provided in each MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for the total number of vegetation cycles detected for the product year, the onset of greenness, greenup midpoint, maturity, peak greenness, senescence, greendown midpoint, dormancy, EVI2 minimum, EVI2 amplitude, integrated EVI2 over a vegetation cycle, as well as overall and phenology metric-specific quality information. SDS layers may be multi-dimensional with up to two valid vegetation cycles.
For areas where the NBAR-EVI2 values are missing due to cloud cover or other reasons, the data gaps are filled with good quality NBAR-EVI2 values from the year directly preceding or following the product year.
Known Issues
- Known issues are described in Section 3.2 of the User Guide.
- For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.
Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions
- The Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 - 2017.
- A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).
- The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 product has an improved approach to snow filtering.
Version Description
Product Summary
Citation
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File Naming Convention
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD12Q2) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2023001), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h07v03), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2024211022728), and the Data Format (hdf).
Documents
USER'S GUIDE
ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)
PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT
SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION
Publications Citing This Dataset
Variables
Variables are a set of physical properties whose values determine the characteristics or behavior of something. For example, temperature and pressure are variables of the atmosphere. Parameters and variables can be used interchangeably. Variable level attributes provide individual information for each variable.
The Name in this table is the variable name. Fill value indicates missing or undefined data points in a variable. Valid range is the range of values the variable can store. Scale factor is used to increase or decrease the size of an object and can be used to correct for distortion. For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.
Name Sort descending | Description | Units | Data Type | Fill Value | Valid Range | Scale Factor |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dormancy | Date when EVI2 last crossed 15% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
EVI_Amplitude | Segment maximum - minimum EVI2 | EVI2 | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 10000 | 0.0001 |
EVI_Area | Sum of daily interpolated EVI2 from Greenup to Dormancy | EVI2 | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 3700 | 0.1 |
EVI_Minimum | Segment minimum EVI2 value | EVI2 | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 10000 | 0.0001 |
Greenup | Date when EVI2 first crossed 15% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
Maturity | Date when EVI2 first crossed 90% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
MidGreendown | Date when EVI2 last crossed 50% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
MidGreenup | Date when EVI2 first crossed 50% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
NumCycles | Total number of valid vegetation cycles with peak in product year | Number | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 7 | N/A |
Peak | Date when EVI2 reached the segment maximum | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |
QA_Detailed | Bit-packed, SDS-specific QA codes | Bit Field | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 16383 | N/A |
QA_Overall | QA code for entire segment | Class | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 3 | N/A |
Senescence | Date when EVI2 last crossed 90% of the segment EVI2 amplitude | Day | int16 | 32767 | 32767 to 32766 | N/A |