N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180
Description
The MOD15A2H Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023. Users are encouraged to use the MOD15A2H Version 6.1 data product.
The MOD15A2H Version 6 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) combined Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) product is an 8-day composite dataset with 500 meter (m) pixel size. The algorithm chooses the “best” pixel available from all the acquisitions of the Terra sensor from within the 8-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 nanometers (nm), absorbed by the green elements of a vegetation canopy.
Science Datasets (SDSs) in the Level 4 (L4) MOD15A2H product include LAI, FPAR, two quality layers, and standard deviation for LAI and FPAR. Two low resolution browse images, LAI and FPAR, are also available for each MOD15A2H granule.
Known Issues
- For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.
Version Description
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.
Copy Citation
Gorelick, N., Hancher, M., Dixon, M., Ilyushchenko, S., Thau, D., & Moore, R. (2017). Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Remote Sensing of Environment. MODIS Version 6 Leaf Area Index/FPAR 4-day L5 Global 500m Myneni, R., Y. Knyazikhin, T. Park. MOD15A2H MODIS/Terra Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V006. 2015, distributed by NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.006 Landsat 5/7/8 Collection 1 Surface Reflectance
Landsat Level-2 Surface Reflectance Science Product courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Masek, J.G., Vermote, E.F., Saleous N.E., Wolfe, R., Hall, F.G., Huemmrich, K.F., Gao, F., Kutler, J., and Lim, T-K. (2006). A Landsat surface reflectance dataset for North America, 1990–2000. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 3(1):68-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2005.857030.
Vermote, E., Justice, C., Claverie, M., & Franch, B. (2016). Preliminary analysis of the performance of the Landsat 8/OLI land surface reflectance product. Remote Sensing of Environment. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.04.008. National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD)
Yang, Limin, Jin, Suming, Danielson, Patrick, Homer, Collin G., Gass, L., Bender, S.M., Case, Adam, Costello, C., Dewitz, Jon A., Fry, Joyce A., Funk, M., Granneman, Brian J., Liknes, G.C., Rigge, Matthew B., Xian, George, A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database—Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies: ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, v. 146, p. 108–123, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.09.006 Resource Software Recommended: Microsoft Excel,url: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel
Resource Title: LAI_training_samples_CONUS.
File Name: LAI_train_samples_CONUS_v0.1.1.csv
Resource Description: This CSV file consists of the training samples for estimating Leaf Area Index based on Landsat surface reflectance images (Collection 1 Tire 1). Each sample has a MODIS LAI value and corresponding surface reflectance derived from Landsat pixels within the MODIS pixel. Contact: Yanghui Kang (kangyanghui@gmail.com)
Column description
UID: Unique identifier. Format: LATITUDE_LONGITUDE_SENSOR_PATHROW_DATE
Landsat_ID: Landsat image ID
Date: Landsat image date in "YYYYMMDD"
Latitude: Latitude (WGS84) of the MODIS LAI pixel center
Longitude: Longitude (WGS84) of the MODIS LAI pixel center
MODIS_LAI: MODIS LAI value in "m2/m2"
MODIS_LAI_std: MODIS LAI standard deviation in "m2/m2"
MODIS_LAI_sat: 0 - MODIS Main (RT) method used no saturation; 1 - MODIS Main (RT) method with saturation
NLCD_class: Majority class code from the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD)
NLCD_frequency: Percentage of the area cover by the majority class from NLCD
Biome: Biome type code mapped from NLCD (see below for more information)
Blue: Landsat surface reflectance in the blue band
Green: Landsat surface reflectance in the green band
Red: Landsat surface reflectance in the red band
Nir: Landsat surface reflectance in the near infrared band
Swir1: Landsat surface reflectance in the shortwave infrared 1 band
Swir2: Landsat surface reflectance in the shortwave infrared 2 band
Sun_zenith: Solar zenith angle from the Landsat image metadata. This is a scene-level value.
Sun_azimuth: Solar azimuth angle from the Landsat image metadata. This is a scene-level value.
NDVI: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index computed from Landsat surface reflectance
EVI: Enhanced Vegetation Index computed from Landsat surface reflectance
NDWI: Normalized Difference Water Index computed from Landsat surface reflectance
GCI: Green Chlorophyll Index = Nir/Green - 1
1 - Deciduous Forest
2 - Evergreen Forest
3 - Mixed Forest
4 - Shrubland
5 - Grassland/Pasture
6 - Cropland
7 - Woody Wetland
8 - Herbaceous Wetland
Reference Dataset:
All data was accessed through Google Earth Engine
Gorelick, N., Hancher, M., Dixon, M., Ilyushchenko, S., Thau, D., & Moore, R. (2017). Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Remote Sensing of Environment.
MODIS Version 6 Leaf Area Index/FPAR 4-day L5 Global 500m Myneni, R., Y. Knyazikhin, T. Park. MOD15A2H MODIS/Terra Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V006. 2015, distributed by NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.006
Landsat 5/7/8 Collection 1 Surface Reflectance
Landsat Level-2 Surface Reflectance Science Product courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Masek, J.G., Vermote, E.F., Saleous N.E., Wolfe, R., Hall, F.G., Huemmrich, K.F., Gao, F., Kutler, J., and Lim, T-K. (2006). A Landsat surface reflectance dataset for North America, 1990–2000. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 3(1):68-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2005.857030.
Vermote, E., Justice, C., Claverie, M., & Franch, B. (2016). Preliminary analysis of the performance of the Landsat 8/OLI land surface reflectance product. Remote Sensing of Environment. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.04.008.
National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD)
Yang, Limin, Jin, Suming, Danielson, Patrick, Homer, Collin G., Gass, L., Bender, S.M., Case, Adam, Costello, C., Dewitz, Jon A., Fry, Joyce A., Funk, M., Granneman, Brian J., Liknes, G.C., Rigge, Matthew B., Xian, George, A new generation of the United States National Land Cover Database—Requirements, research priorities, design, and implementation strategies: ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, v. 146, p. 108–123, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2018.09.006
Resource Software Recommended: Microsoft Excel,url: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/excel}, publisher={ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research}, author={US Department of Agriculture and National Agricultural Library}, year={2026}, language={en} }
File Naming Convention
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD15A2H) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2002273), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h20v06), the Version of the data collection (006), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2015151112325), and the Data Format (hdf).
Documents
USER'S GUIDE
ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)
DATA PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT
Publications Citing This Dataset
| Title | Year Sort ascending | Author | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| How do geological map details influence the identification of geology-streamflow relationships in large-sample hydrology studies? | do Nascimento, Thiago V. M., Rudlang, Julia, Gnann, Sebastian, Seibert, Jan, Hrachowitz, Markus, Fenicia, Fabrizio | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Albedo, Snow Cover | |
| How does the mixing assumption influence the distributed tracer-aided | Nan, Yi, Tian, Fuqiang, Li, Zongxing | 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) | |
| Improved evapotranspiration estimation using the Penman-Monteith | Jawad, Muhammad, Behrangi, Ali, Farmani, Mohammad Ali, Qiu, Yuan, Sohi, Hossein Yousefi, Gupta, Aniket, Niu, Guo-Yue | Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification | |
| Influence of Arctic Conditions on the Diatom Diversity of Islands Within | Barinova, Sophia, Gabyshev, Viktor A., Borisov, Boris, Rybnikov, Sviatoslav R. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Improving the simulation of maize growth using WRF-Crop model based on | Bao, Lun, Yu, Lingxue, Yu, Entao, Li, Rongping, Cai, Zhongquan, Yu, Jiaxin, Li, Xuan | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux | |
| Identifying differences in evapotranspiration and ecosystem water use | Shao, Rui, Li, Jiaqi, Shao, Weiwei, Wang, Yicheng | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Impact of model physics, meteorological forcing, and soil property data | Zhang, Pei, Zheng, Donghai, van der Velde, Rogier, Wen, Jun, Su, Zhongbo | Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Characteristics, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), 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 | |
| Implementing a process-based representation of soil water movement in a | Verbruggen, Wim, Warlind, David, Horion, Stephanie, Meunier, Felicien, Verbeeck, Hans, Wieckowski, Aleksander, Tagesson, Torbern, Schurgers, Guy | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Impacts of meteorological drought on peak vegetation productivity of grasslands from perspectives of canopy structure and leaf physiology | Bai, Wenrui, Wang, Huanjiong, Xiao, Jingfeng, Li, Xing, Ge, Quansheng | Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Habitat Loss and Other Threats to the Survival of Parnassius | Stojanovic, Dejan V., Visacki, Vladimir, Ranelovic, Dragana, Ivetic, Jelena, Orlovic, Sasa | Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity | |
| Machine Learning Insights for Fire Impacts on Snow Disappearance Predictability in Northern California | Mohanty, Yashnil, Abolafia-Rosenzweig, Ronnie, He, Cenlin, McGrath, Daniel | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Snow Melt, Snow Melt | |
| Joint assimilation of satellite soil moisture and vegetation conditions | Chakraborty, Arijit, Saharia, Manabendra | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Integrating the Interconnections Between Groundwater and Land Surface | Maina, Fadji Z., Rosen, Dan, Abbaszadeh, Peyman, Yang, Chen, Kumar, Sujay V., Rodell, Matthew, Maxwell, Reed | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Characteristics, Snow Cover, Snow Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) | |
| Mapping global leaf inclination angle (LIA) based on field measurement data | Li, Sijia, Fang, Hongliang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance, Anisotropy | |
| Magnitude, drivers, and patterns of gross primary productivity of rice | Mahbub, Riasad Bin, Reba, Michele L., Runkle, Benjamin R.K. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance | |
| Persistent greenhouse conditions in Eocene North America point to lower climate sensitivity | Smith, Krister T., Bruch, Angela A. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Observed decoupling of vegetation greenness and productivity despite regional coupling patterns across the Tibetan Plateau | Lv, Jinxia, Zhao, Wenwu | Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Topographical Relief Maps, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM) | |
| Prediction of gully erosion susceptibility through the lens of the | Han, Jeongho, Guzman, Jorge A., Chu, Maria L. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Physically Based Canopy Interception Model for a Beech Forest Using | Zagyvai-Kiss, Katalin Anita, Gribovszki, Zoltan, Kalicz, Peter, Zabret, Katarina, Szilagyi, Jozsef, Herceg, Andras | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Physics-augmented deep learning models for improving evapotranspiration estimation in global land regions | Liu, Binrui, He, Xinguang, Lyu, Wenkai, Tao, Lizhi | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Large-Scale Retrieval and Quality Control of Leaf Area Index Based on | Guo, Da, Song, Xiaoning, Hu, Ronghai, Mallen-Cooper, Max, Xing, Yuzhen, Li, Ruijin, Zeng, Hong, Guo, Han, Yan, Guangjian, Kardol, Paul | Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI) | |
| Estimation of evapotranspiration using micrometeorological and water | Chittolina, Mariane, da Rocha, Humberto R., Anselmo, Evandro M., Souza, Rodolfo M.S., Domingues, Leonardo M. | Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI) | |
| Spatiotemporal variation in carbon use efficiency derived from eddy-covariance measurement of global terrestrial biomes | Jin, Chuan, Zha, Tianshan, Bourque, Charles P.-A., Fan, Zehao, Zhang, Weirong, Di, Kai, Jiao, Yue, Ma, Qiaofeng, Yuan, Dongdan, Zhao, Hongxian, Hao, Shaorong, Lu, Yifei, Hu, Zhongmin | Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI) | |
| A Comparative Analysis of Remote Sensing Soil Moisture Data-sets Fusion Methods: Novel LSTM Approach versus Widely-Used Triple Collocation Technique | Zhao, Haojin, Montzka, Carsten, Vereecken, Harry, Franssen, Harrie-Jan Hendricks | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Regional specificity of the transformation of the water balance structure during restoration successions in the cutting of dark coniferous forests of the Yenisey Ridge | Burenina, T. A., Korets, M. A., Suleimanova, Zh. R. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) |