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Description

The MOD44B Version 6.1 Vegetation Continuous Fields (VCF) yearly product is a global representation of surface vegetation cover as gradations of three ground cover components: percent tree cover, percent non-tree cover, and percent non-vegetated (bare). VCF products provide a continuous, quantitative portrayal of land surface cover at 250 meter (m) pixel resolution, with a sub-pixel depiction of percent cover in reference to the three ground cover components. The sub-pixel mixture of ground cover estimates represents a revolutionary approach to the characterization of vegetative land cover that can be used to enhance inputs to environmental modeling and monitoring applications.

The MOD44B data product layers include percent tree cover, percent non-tree cover, percent non-vegetated, cloud cover, and quality indicators. The start date of the annual period for this product begins with day of year (DOY) 65 (March 6 except for leap year which corresponds to March 5).

Known Issues

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).

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent
N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
Spatial Resolution
250 Meters x 250 Meters
Geographic Region
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-03-05 to Present
Temporal Resolution
1 Year
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
c2565805839-lpcloud
Data State
ACTIVE
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated

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.

Copy Citation

DiMiceli, C., Sohlberg, R., & Townshend, J. (2022). MODIS/Terra Vegetation Continuous Fields Yearly L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD44B.061 Date Accessed: 2025-06-21

Data Center Citation

Charlene DiMiceli, Robert Sohlberg, John Townshend. 2022. MODIS/Terra Vegetation Continuous Fields Yearly L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V061. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA: NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD44B.061.

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.
SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION Validation at stage 3 has been achieved for the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields data product.
SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION Further details regarding MODIS land product validation for the MOD44 data are available from the MODIS Land Team Validation site.

Learning Resources

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