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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).

Version Description

Collection Version 6.1 Processing and Reprocessing

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
Science Keywords
Canopy Characteristics,
Evergreen Vegetation,
Crown,
Deciduous Vegetation,
Leaf Characteristics,
Vegetation Cover,
Land Use/Land Cover Classification

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: 2025-10-26

File Naming Convention

MOD44B.A2024065.h05v11.061.2025133155458.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD44B) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2024065), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h05v11), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025133155458), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author
Integrating multi-source remote sensing to assess forest aboveground biomass in the Khingan Mountains of north-eastern China using machine-learning algorithms Wang, X. Y.
Engineering-economic evaluation of diffractive NLOS backhaul (e3nb)—A techno-economic model for 3D wireless backhaul assessment Oughton, E. J.
Mapping South America’s drylands through remote sensing—A review of the methodological trends and current challenges Ganem, K. A.
Small but visible—Predicting rare bryophyte distribution and richness patterns using remote sensing-based ensembles of small models Cerrejon, C.
Generating 2m fine-scale urban tree cover product over 34 metropolises in China based on deep context-aware sub-pixel mapping network He, D.
Associations of greenness surrounding schools with blood pressure and hypertension—A nationwide cross-sectional study of 61,229 children and adolescents in China Luo, Y. N.
Pollen-based temporal-spatial land cover reconstruction in North China for the last 6,000 years Sun, Y.
Impact of short-term exposure to extreme temperatures on mortality—A multi-city study in Belgium Demoury, C.
Drivers of phenotypic divergence in a Mesoamerican highland bird Robles-Bello, S. M.
A large but transient carbon sink from urbanization and rural depopulation in China Zhang, X.
SHOWING 10 OF 99

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 Description Units Data Type Fill Value Valid Range Scale Factor
Cloud Pixel cloud cover indicators Bit Field uint8 0 0 to 255 N/A
Percent_NonTree_Vegetation Percent of pixel that is nontree vegetation Percent uint8 200 200 to 100 N/A
Percent_NonVegetated Percent of pixel non vegetated Percent uint8 200 200 to 100 N/A
Percent_NonVegetated_SD Standard deviation of percent not vegetated Percent uint16 0 0 to 275 0.01
Percent_Tree_Cover Percent of pixel that is tree covered Percent uint8 200 200 to 100 N/A
Percent_Tree_Cover_SD Standard deviation of percent tree covered Percent uint16 0 0 to 275 0.01
Quality Quality Control indicators Bit Field uint8 0 0 to 255 N/A
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