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Description

The MCD12C1 Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the MCD12C1 Version 6.1 data product.

The Terra and Aqua combined Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Cover Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) (MCD12C1) Version 6 data product provides a spatially aggregated and reprojected version of the tiled MCD12Q1 Version 6 data product. Maps of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), University of Maryland (UMD), and Leaf Area Index (LAI) classification schemes are provided at yearly intervals at 0.05 degree (5,600 meter) spatial resolution for the entire globe from 2001 to 2020. Additionally, sub-pixel proportions of each land cover class in each 0.05 degree pixel is provided along with the aggregated quality assessment information for each of the three land classification schemes.

Provided in each MCD12C1 Version 6 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for Majority Land Cover Type 1-3, Majority Land Cover Type 1-3 Assessment, and Majority Land Cover Type 1-3 Percent.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6 land cover products: (1) Updated to include the improvements and changes made for the MCD12Q1 Version 6 data product, (2) Version 6 does not include a Majority Land Cover Type Quality Control (QC) Layer, (3) Land_Cover_Type_Percent_1, Land_Cover_Type_Percent_2, Land_Cover_Type_Percent_3 layers have up to 17 dimensions and include the sub-pixel proportions of the IGBP, UMD, and LAI classes in each 0.05 degree pixel, (4) The IGBP classification scheme legend used differs from the legend used for the MCD12Q1 Version 6 data product and can be found on page 16 of the User Guide, and (5) The data product should not be used to determine post-classification land cover change between years due to the uncertainty in the land cover labels for any one year. More information can be found on page 2 of the User Guide.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra ,
Aqua
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
5600 Meters x 5600 Meters
Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Climate Modeling Grid (CMG)
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
CARTESIAN
Temporal Extent
2001-01-01 to 2020-12-31
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
C2763289440-LPCLOUD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
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

Friedl, M., & Sulla-Menashe, D. (2015). MCD12C1 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V006 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12C1.006 Date Accessed: 2026-05-27

File Naming Convention

MCD12C1.A2003001.006.2018053185458.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD12C1) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2003001), the Version of the data collection (006), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2018053185458), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
What does the Standardized Streamflow Index actually reflect? Insights and implications for hydrological drought analysis Lema, Fabian, Mendoza, Pablo A., Vasquez, Nicolas A., Mizukami, Naoki, Zambrano-Bigiarini, Mauricio, Vargas, Ximena Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Wildfires heat the middle troposphere over the Himalayas and Tibetan Pei, Qiaomin, Zhao, Chuanfeng, Yang, Yikun, Chen, Annan, Cong, Zhiyuan, Wan, Xin, Zhang, Haotian, Wu, Guangming Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Dynamics, Surface Radiative Properties, Land Surface Temperature
Will Olive Groves have a Future Under Climate Change Conditions in The North Aegean Sub-Region, a Mediterranean Agricultural Ecosystem of Turkiye? Turkes, Murat, Sahin, Sinan Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Widespread Sensitivity of Vegetation to the Transition From Normal Liao, Jiangling, Xu, Yuyue, Pi, Junzheng, Li, Yuchen, Ke, Changqing, Zhan, Wenfeng, Chen, Jianli Surface Pressure, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Humidity, Evapotranspiration, Surface Winds, Rain, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff, Ground Water, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Re-examining urban rainfall enhancement over North America Pryor, Sara C, Barthelmie, Rebecca J, Zhou, Xin, Huffman, George J Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Recent forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon causes substantial reductions in dry season precipitation Liu, Yu, Spracklen, Dominick V., Parker, Douglas J., Holden, Joseph, Ge, Jun, Guo, Weidong Total Surface Precipitation Rate, Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Refined semi-empirical models for soil moisture retrieval in spaceborne Dong, Zhounan, Yan, Qingyun, Jin, Shuanggen, Li, Li, Chen, Guodong Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Regional fire dynamics and its contributions to carbon flux variability in South Asia Das, Chiranjit, Chatterjee, Abhishek, Kunchala, Ravi Kumar, Liu, Junjie Surface Pressure, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Humidity, Evapotranspiration, Surface Winds, Rain, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Albedo, Anisotropy
Critical slowing down of the Amazon forest after increased drought occurrence Van Passel, Johanna, Bernardino, Paulo N., Lhermitte, Stef, Rius, Bianca F., Hirota, Marina, Conradi, Timo, de Keersmaecker, Wanda, Van Meerbeek, Koenraad, Somers, Ben RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo, Burned Area
Crops Feed Rain to Drylands in Northwest China An, Qiang, Staal, Arie, Liu, Liu, Cheng, Yongming, Liu, Jing, Huang, Guanhua Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Combining Spaceborne GNSS-R Data and Ensemble Machine Learning Methods for the Retrieval Vegetation Optical Depth Bu, Jinwei, Wang, Qiulan, Li, Linghui, Zhang, Yongfeng, Liu, Xinyu Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Deep space observations of conditionally averaged global reflectance patterns Kostinski, Alexander, Marshak, Alexander, Varnai, Tamas Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Evaluation of land surface phenology in northern hemisphere permafrost regions Zhao, Yaohua, Peng, Xiaoqing, Frauenfeld, Oliver W., Cui, Xia, Bi, Jian, Ma, Xuanlong, Wei, Gang, Mu, Cuicui, Sun, Hao, Sui, Jia Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Plant Phenology, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Plant Phenological Changes
Forest evapotranspiration trends and their driving factors under climate Cui, Zilong, Zhang, Yuan, Wang, Anzhi, Wu, Jiabing Surface Pressure, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Humidity, Evapotranspiration, Surface Winds, Rain, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance
Identifying thresholds of time-lag and accumulative effects of extreme precipitation on major vegetation types at global scale Liu, Min, Wang, Hao, Zhai, Huiliang, Zhang, Xiaochong, Shakir, Muhammad, Ma, Jianying, Sun, Wei Total Surface Precipitation Rate, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain
Improved estimates of smoke exposure during Australia fire seasons: importance of quantifying plume injection heights Feng, Xu, Mickley, Loretta J., Bell, Michelle L., Liu, Tianjia, Fisher, Jenny A., Val Martin, Maria Fire Occurrence, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Higher atmospheric aridity-dominated drought stress contributes to aggravating dryland productivity loss under global warming Yu, Xiaojing, Zhang, Lixia, Zhou, Tianjun, Zheng, Jianghua, Guan, Jingyun Land Use/Land Cover Classification
High-precision estimation of pan-Arctic soil surface temperature from Guo, Hongxiang, Zhu, Wenquan, Xiao, Cunde, Zhao, Cenliang, Chen, Liyuan Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Impact of hydro-meteorological conditions and flash drought duration on post-flash drought recovery time patterns Lu, Mengge, Sun, Huaiwei, Yang, Yong, Xue, Jie, Ling, Hongbo, Zhang, Hong, Zhang, Wenxin Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Primary Production, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Gross Primary Production (gpp), Reflectance
A 20012022 global gross primary productivity dataset using an ensemble model based on the random forest method Chen, Xin, Chen, Tiexi, Li, Xiaodong, Chai, Yuanfang, Zhou, Shengjie, Guo, Renjie, Dai, Jie Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Differential phenological responses to temperature among various stages of spring vegetation green-up Jiang, Nan, Shen, Miaogen, Yang, Zhiyong Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Plant Phenology, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Effects of urban areas on the diurnal cycle of temperature and Katzfey, Jack, Schlunzen, K. Heinke, Hoffmann, Peter Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Effects of urbanization on cloud-to-ground lightning strike frequency: a global perspective Narvaez, J. Pablo, Yanoviak, Stephen P., Bitzer, Phillip M., Burchfield, Jeffrey C., Gora, Evan M. Nitrogen Dioxide, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Annual and Seasonal Patterns of Burned Area Products in Arctic-Boreal North America and Russia for 20012020 Clelland, Andrew A., Marshall, Gareth J., Baxter, Robert, Potter, Stefano, Talucci, Anna C., Rady, Joshua M., Genet, Helene, Rogers, Brendan M., Natali, Susan M. Reflectance, Fire Occurrence, Surface Thermal Properties, Land Surface Temperature, THERMAL ANOMALIES, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Burned Area, Emissions, Forests, Carbon, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Reforestation, Carbonaceous Aerosols, Nitrogen Oxides, Particulates, Hydrogen Cyanide, Non-methane Hydrocarbons/Volatile Organic Compounds, Particulate Matter, Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur Dioxide, Carbon And Hydrocarbon Compounds, Fire Dynamics, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Albedo
Climate velocities and species tracking in global mountain regions Chan, Wei-Ping, Lenoir, Jonathan, Mai, Guan-Shuo, Kuo, Hung-Chi, Chen, I-Ching, Shen, Sheng-Feng Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
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