Description
The MOD13A3 Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the MOD13A3 Version 6.1 data product.
The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Vegetation Indices (MOD13A3) Version 6 data are provided monthly at 1 kilometer (km) spatial resolution as a gridded Level 3 product in the sinusoidal projection. In generating this monthly product, the algorithm ingests all the MOD13A2 products that overlap the month and employs a weighted temporal average.
The MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) complements NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) NDVI products and provides continuity for time series historical applications. MODIS also includes an Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) that minimizes canopy background variations and maintains sensitivity over dense vegetation conditions. The EVI uses the blue band to remove residual atmosphere contamination caused by smoke and sub-pixel thin clouds. The MODIS NDVI and EVI products are computed from surface reflectances corrected for molecular scattering, ozone absorption, and aerosols.
Vegetation indices are used for global monitoring of vegetation conditions and are used in products displaying land cover and land cover changes. These data may be used as input for modeling global biogeochemical and hydrologic processes as well as global and regional climate. Additional applications include characterizing land surface biophysical properties and processes, such as primary production and land cover conversion.
Provided along with the vegetation layers and the two quality assurance (QA) layers are reflectance bands 1 (red), 2 (near-infrared), 3 (blue), and 7 (mid-infrared), as well as three observation layers.
Known Issues
- The incorrect representation of the aerosol quantities (low, average, high) in the Collection 6 MOD09 surface reflectance products may have impacted MOD13 Vegetation Index data products particularly over arid bright surfaces.
- Corrections were implemented in Collection 6.1 reprocessing.
- For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.
Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions
- The incorrect representation of the aerosol quantities (low, average, high) in the Collection 6 MOD09 surface reflectance products may have impacted MOD13 Vegetation Index data products particularly over arid bright surfaces.
- Corrections were implemented in Collection 6.1 reprocessing.
- For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.
Product Summary
Citation
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.
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Documents
ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD) | The ATBD provides physical theory and mathematical procedures for the calculations used to produce the data products. | |
GENERAL DOCUMENTATION | The File Specification provides a description of the product file including Scientific Data Sets and their attributes. | |
PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT | The LDOPE Land Product Quality Assessment website provides known issues, maneuvers, and product quality of the land products. | |
USER'S GUIDE | The technical information in the User's Guide enables users to interpret and use the data products. |