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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asymmetric effects of diurnal warming on carbon allocation to leaves of marsh wetlands on the Tibetan Plateau | Wu, Liyuan, Shen, Xiangjin, Lu, Xianguo, Jiang, Ming | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Anthropogenic Influences Alter the Response and Seasonality of | Maina, Fadji Z., Kumar, Sujay V. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux | |
| Assessment of satellite-derived FAPAR products with different spatial resolutions for gross primary productivity estimation | Zhang, Xiyu, Jin, Huaan, Zhao, Wei, Yin, Gaofei, Xie, Xinyao, Fan, Jianrong | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Assimilation of carbonyl sulfide (COS) fluxes within the adjoint-based data assimilation systemNanjing University Carbon Assimilation System (NUCAS v1. 0) | Zhu, Huajie, Wu, Mousong, Jiang, Fei, Vossbeck, Michael, Kaminski, Thomas, Xing, Xiuli, Wang, Jun, Ju, Weimin, Chen, Jing M. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Carbon restoration potential on global land under water resource constraints | Peng, Shouzhang, Terrer, Cesar, Smith, Benjamin, Ciais, Philippe, Han, Qinggong, Nan, Jialan, Fisher, Joshua B., Chen, Liang, Deng, Lei, Yu, Kailiang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux | |
| Coherence of recurring fires and land use change in South America | Ren, Shulin, Xu, Xiyan, Jia, Gensuo, Huang, Anqi, Ma, Wei | Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Characteristics | |
| Constraining light dependency in modeled emissions through comparison to observed biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) concentrations in a southeastern ... | Panji, Namrata Shanmukh, McGlynn, Deborah F., Barry, Laura E. R., Scanlon, Todd M., Lerdau, Manuel T., Pusede, Sally E., Isaacman-VanWertz, Gabriel | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Development of a multidecadal land reanalysis over High Mountain Asia | Maina, Fadji Z., Xue, Yuan, Kumar, Sujay V., Getirana, Augusto, McLarty, Sasha, Appana, Ravi, Forman, Bart, Zaitchik, Ben, Loomis, Bryant, Maggioni, Viviana, Zhou, Yifan | Snow Cover, Snow Cover, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Characteristics, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Water Budget | |
| Data-constrained modeling of terrestrial gross primary production over | Chen, Shaoyuan, Liu, Dan, Zhang, Yuan, Zheng, Rongshun, Wang, Tao | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Deforestation-induced runoff changes dominated by forest-climate feedbacks | Ma, Shuai, Zhou, Sha, Yu, Bofu, Song, Jiaxi | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Damage Assessment of the Kupiansk Forest Farm as a Result of Military Actions by Remotely Sensed Data | Popov, M., Andreiev, A., Alpert, S., Golubov, S., Lysenko, A. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Ecohydrological and hydrogeological dynamics of groundwater springs in Eastern Himalaya, India | Kumar, Manish, Sen, Sumit, Kulkarni, Himanshu, Badiger, Shrinivas, Varma, Girish R., Krishnaswamy, Jagdish | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Does dynamically modeled leaf area improve predictions of land surface water and carbon fluxes? Insights into dynamic vegetation modules | Westermann, Sven Armin, Hildebrandt, Anke, Bousetta, Souhail, Thober, Stephan | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Divergent Changes in Vegetation Greenness, Productivity, and Rainfall | Yu, Yang, Hua, Ting, Chen, Liding, Zhang, Zhiqiang, Pereira, Paulo | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Conflicting Changes of Vegetation Greenness Interannual Variability on Half of the Global Vegetated Surface | Tian, Jiaqi, Luo, Xiangzhong | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Decadal variation and trend of boundary layer height and possible | Li, Congcong, Zhang, Xuanze, Guo, Jianping, Yu, Qiang, Zhang, Yongqiang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Dryland evapotranspiration from remote sensing solar-induced chlorophyll | Bu, Jingyi, Gan, Guojing, Chen, Jiahao, Su, Yanxin, Yuan, Mengjia, Gao, Yanchun, Domingo, Francisco, Lopez-Ballesteros, Ana, Migliavacca, Mirco, El-Madany, Tarek S., Gentine, Pierre, Xiao, Jingfeng, Garcia, Monica | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Improving the estimation of atmospheric water vapor pressure using interpretable long short-term memory networks | Gao, B., Coon, E.T., Thornton, P.E., Lu, D. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Maximum/Minimum Temperature, 24 Hour Precipitation Amount, Snow Water Equivalent, Vapor Pressure, Shortwave Radiation | |
| Improving physiological simulations in seasonally dry tropical forests with limited measurements | e Silva, Iago Alvarenga, Rodriguez, Daniel Andres, Espindola, Rogerio Pinto | 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 Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Increasing Optimum Temperature of Vegetation Activity Over the Past Four | Wang, Yiheng, Sarmah, Sangeeta, Singha, Mrinal, Chen, Weinan, Ge, Yong, Liang, Liyin L., Goswami, Santonu, Niu, Shuli | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Inclusion of bedrock vadose zone in dynamic global vegetation models is key for simulating vegetation structure and function | Lapides, Dana A., Hahm, W. Jesse, Forrest, Matthew, Rempe, Daniella M., Hickler, Thomas, Dralle, David N. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Incorporating changes in land surface temperature improves BESS | Lu, Xiaoman, Guan, Kaiyu, Jiang, Chongya, Gao, Lun, Wang, Sheng, Zhang, Jiaying | Albedo, Anisotropy, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Precipitation, Precipitation Amount, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Rain, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance | |
| Impact of revegetation and agricultural intensification on water storage variation in the Yellow River Basin | Wang, Zijing, Xu, Mengzhen, Penny, Gopal, Hu, Hongchang, Zhang, Xiangping, Tian, Shimin | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Vegetation Cover, Cropland, Land Use/Land Cover Classification | |
| Identification of the dominant factors and altitudinal variation in water use efficiency in the QinlingDaba Mountains | Zhao, Tixia, Zhu, Lianqi, Dong, Qingdong, Shi, Beibei, Zhao, Jingjing, Zhu, Wenbo | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Impact of oversimplified parameters on BVOC emissions estimation in China: A sensitivity analysis using the WRFCLM4MEGAN model | Shang, Fang, Yin, Lifei, Liu, Mingxu, Liu, Bing, Xu, Tingting, Li, Mengmeng, Cai, Xuhui, Kang, Ling, Zhang, Hongsheng, Yue, Xu, Song, Yu | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Total Surface Water |