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Description

The MCD15A3H Version 6.1 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Level 4 combined Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) product is a 4-day composite data set with 500 meter pixel size. The algorithm chooses the best pixel available from all the acquisitions of both MODIS sensors located on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites from within the 4-day period.

LAI is defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground area in broadleaf canopies and as one-half the total needle surface area per unit ground area in coniferous canopies. FPAR is defined as the fraction of incident photosynthetically active radiation (400-700 nm) absorbed by the green elements of a vegetation canopy.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 LAI/FPAR data products: (1) 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, and (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra ,
Aqua
Instruments
MODIS
Projects
TERRA ,
Aqua
Spatial Extent

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

Spatial Resolution
500 Meters x 500 Meters
Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Sinusoidal Tiling System
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2002-07-04 to Present
Temporal Resolution
4 Day
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
C2343110937-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
629259
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Leaf Characteristics ,
Photosynthetically Active Radiation ,
Leaf Area Index (LAI) ,
Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)

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

Myneni, R., Knyazikhin, Y., & Park, T. (2021). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Leaf Area Index/FPAR 4-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD15A3H.061 Date Accessed: 2026-06-13

File Naming Convention

MCD15A3H.A2025213.h11v06.061.2025218033608.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD15A3H) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025213), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h11v06), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025218033608), 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 Topic
Ammonia exchange flux over a tropical dry deciduous forest in the dry Xu, Mao, Chanonmuang, Phuvasa, Sase, Hiroyuki, Sorimachi, Atsuyuki, Itahashi, Syuichi, Matsuda, Kazuhide Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
A Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Sink Assessment Model Considering Forest Zhang, Mengyu, He, Honglin, Zhang, Li, Yu, Guirui, Ren, Xiaoli, Huang, Yuanyuan, Yuan, Wenping, Niu, Zhong'en Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
CEDAR-GPP: spatiotemporally upscaled estimates of gross primary productivity incorporating CO2 fertilization Kang, Yanghui, Bassiouni, Maoya, Gaber, Max, Lu, Xinchen, Keenan, Trevor F. Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance, Vegetation Index, Vegetation Cover, Plant Characteristics, Canopy Characteristics, Albedo
Capturing Soil Surface Freeze Dynamics Over the Arctic-Boreal Zone With Carreno-Luengo, Hugo, Ruf, Christopher S., Gleason, Scott, Russel, Anthony Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Assessment of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity-Depth Relationships and Mendoza, Raul, van Verseveld, Willem, Seijger, Chris, Weerts, Albrecht Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Machine learning-based winter wheat yield prediction using multisource Khosravani Shariati, Seyed Arash, Abbasi, Ali 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, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Emissivity, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Machine Learning for Predicting Spatially Variable Lateral Hydraulic Ali, Awad M., Imhoff, Ruben O., Weerts, Albrecht H. Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Making earth observations model-friendly: An interoperable tool enabling Wang, Linji, Rajib, Adnan, Merwade, Venkatesh Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain
Large Eddy Simulation of Shallow Cumulus Clouds in the Southern Great Gristey, Jake J., Feingold, Graham, Angevine, Wayne M., Chen, YaoSheng Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Large-scale diurnal responses of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence Zhao, Dayang, Zhang, Zhaoying, Zhang, Yongguang Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Plant Phenology, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
JAXCanVeg: A Differentiable Land Surface Model Jiang, Peishi, Kidger, Patrick, Bandai, Toshiyuki, Baldocchi, Dennis, Liu, Heping, Xiao, Yi, Zhang, Qianyu, Wang, Carlos Tianxin, Steefel, Carl, Chen, Xingyuan Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Increasing Aridity and Interannual Precipitation Variability Drives Wang, Wanting, Liu, Shiliang, Zhang, Qiang, Zhao, Yifei, Dong, Yuhong, Wu, Gang, Li, Yetong, Fan, Jingyang, Lin, Jiayi, Tian, Ziang, Phan Tran, LamSon Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Incorporating riparian vegetation and stochastic modelling in hydraulic geometry of the Yellow River Estuary inlet Song, Xiaolong, Xu, Haijue, Bai, Yuchuan Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Improvement of FAPAR Estimation Under the Presence of Non-Green Li, Rui, Li, Baolin, Yuan, Yecheng, Liu, Wei, Zhu, Jie, Qi, Jiali, Liu, Haijiang, Ma, Guangwen, Jiang, Yuhao, Li, Ying, Tan, Qiuyuan Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Impacts of environmental factors on ecosystem water use efficiency: An Kong, Zhe, Wang, Tiejun, Han, Qiong, Dai, Yibin, Zuo, Yutao, Wang, Lichun, Lang, Yunchao Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Impact of groundwater overextraction and agricultural irrigation on Yan, Heng, Xie, Zhenghui, Jia, Binghao, Li, Ruichao, Wang, Longhuan, Tian, Yuhang, You, Yanbin Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Reflectance, Albedo, Anisotropy, Shortwave Radiation, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Latent Heat Flux
Enhanced Climate Mitigation Feedbacks by Wetland Vegetation in Semi-Arid Liu, Tingxiang, Yu, Lingxue, Yan, Zhuoran, Li, Xuan, Bu, Kun, Yang, Jiuchun Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Ecosystem carbon use efficiency at global scale from upscaling eddy-covariance data with machine learning and MODIS products Campos-Taberner, M., Gilabert, M. A., Sanchez-Ruiz, S., Martinez, B., Jimenez-Guisado, A., Garcia-Haro, F. J. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Denoising Autoencoder for Reconstructing Sensor Observation Data and Predicting Evapotranspiration: Noisy and Missing Values Repair and Uncertainty Quantification Johnsen, Timothy K., Bi, Xiangyu, Chou, Chunwei, Varadharajan, Charuleka, Wu, Yuxin, Skone, Jonathan, Ramakrishnan, Lavanya Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
DroughtSet: Understanding Drought Through Spatial-Temporal Learning Tan, Xuwei, Zhao, Qian, Liu, Yanlan, Zhang, Xueru RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Topographical Relief Maps, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Compound effects of river routing and local rainfall-runoff for inflow Zang, Shuaihong, Weerts, Albrecht, van Verseveld, Willem Johan, Li, Zhijia, Huang, Pengnian Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Estimating Soil Moisture Using Multimodal Remote Sensing and Transfer Optimization Techniques Liu, Jingke, Liu, Lin, Yu, Weidong, Wang, Xingbin Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Coupling Remote Sensing With a Process Model for the Simulation of Xia, Yushu, Sanderman, Jonathan, Watts, Jennifer D., Machmuller, Megan B., Mullen, Andrew L., Rivard, Charlotte, Endsley, Arthur, Hernandez, Haydee, Kimball, John, Ewing, Stephanie A., Litvak, Marcy, Duman, Tomer, Krishnan, Praveena, Meyers, Tilden, Brunsell, Nathaniel A., Mohanty, Binayak, Liu, Heping, Gao, Zhongming, Chen, Jiquan, Abraha, Michael, Scott, Russell L., Flerchinger, Gerald N., Clark, Patrick E., Stoy, Paul C., Khan, Anam M., Brookshire, E. N. Jack, Zhang, Quan, Cook, David R., Thienelt, Thomas, Mitra, Bhaskar, MauritzTozer, Marguerite, Tweedie, Craig E., Torn, Margaret S., Billesbach, Dave Reflectance, Anisotropy, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Precipitation Amount, Maximum/Minimum Temperature, Shortwave Radiation, Snow Water Equivalent, Vapor Pressure
Controls on actual evapotranspiration in wetland ecosystems across different climates Xu, Kang, Han, Qiong, Wang, Tiejun Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Disentangling Ecological Restoration's Impact on Terrestrial Water Storage Shen, Xiaofan, Niu, Liantao, Jia, Xiaoxu, Yang, Ting, Hu, Wei, Wu, Chaoyang, Chu, Jiangdong, Biswas, Asim, Shao, Ming'an 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, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
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