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Description

The MOD16A2 Version 6.1 Evapotranspiration/Latent Heat Flux product is an 8-day composite dataset produced at 500 meter (m) pixel resolution. The algorithm used for the MOD16 data product collection is based on the logic of the Penman-Monteith equation, which includes inputs of daily meteorological reanalysis data along with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) remotely sensed data products such as vegetation property dynamics, albedo, and land cover.

Provided in the MOD16A2 product are layers for composited Evapotranspiration (ET), Latent Heat Flux (LE), Potential ET (PET) and Potential LE (PLE) along with a quality control layer. Two low resolution browse images, ET and LE, are also available for each MOD16A2 granule.

The pixel values for the two Evapotranspiration layers (ET and PET) are the sum of all eight days within the composite period and the pixel values for the two Latent Heat layers (LE and PLE) are the average of all eight days within the composite period. Note that the last acquisition period of each year is a 5 or 6-day composite period, depending on the year.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 net evapotranspiration 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, (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB), and (3) The product uses Climatology Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) as back up to the operational LAI/FPAR.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
MODIS
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
2021-01-01 to Present
Temporal Resolution
8 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
C2343113232-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
69784
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Evapotranspiration ,
Latent Heat Flux

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

Running, S., Mu, Q., & Zhao, M. (2021). MODIS/Terra Net Evapotranspiration 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD16A2.061 Date Accessed: 2026-05-14

File Naming Convention

MOD16A2.A2025201.h07v05.061.2025217003056.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD16A2) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025201), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h07v05), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025217003056), 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
Introducing the concept of "resource scapes" to account for water, energy and biomass resources' nexus dependencies and governance Virk, Zeeshan Tahir, Fennell, Jessica, Haghighi, Ali Torabi, Klove, Bjorn Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Integrating remote sensing data with watershed-scale ecohydrological modeling in diverse forest and agricultural landscapes of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Risal, Avay, Karki, Ritesh, Qi, Junyu Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Biomass, Vegetation Species, Fire Disturbance, Forest Harvesting and Engineering, Carbon, Forests
From Drought to Aridification: Land-Cover Fingerprints of a Drying Chile Zambrano, Francisco, Vrieling, Anton, Meza, Francisco, DuranLlacer, Iongel, Fernandez, Francisco, VenegasGonzalez, Alejandro, Raab, Nicolas, Craven, Dylan Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
How much water vapour does the Tibetan Plateau release into the atmosphere? Zheng, Chaolei, Jia, Li, Hu, Guangcheng, Menenti, Massimo, Timmermans, Joris 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, Soil Heat Budget, Soil Heat Budget, Soil Temperature, Soil Infiltration, Soil Infiltration, Surface Soil Moisture, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Evaporation, Surface Water, Runoff Rate, Average Flow, Average Flow, Precipitation, Snow/Ice, Snow Depth, Snow Melt, Snow/Ice Temperature, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Ground Water, Latent Heat Flux
How to determine the leaf area index (LAI) of forests: A comparison of forest inventory versus satellite-driven estimates Sinan, Muhammed, Hasenauer, Hubert Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
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
Implementation and evaluation of a global evapotranspiration index algorithm based on land surface temperature TANADA, Kazuhisa, TASUMI, Masahiro, MURAKAMI, Hiroshi, MORIYAMA, Masao, TAKAHASHI, Yoshiyuki, IDE, Reiko, TAKAGI, Kentaro Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
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
Global non-uniformity in biophysical surface temperature responses to cropland expansion over non-forest vegetation Si, Menglin, Li, Zhao-Liang, Liu, Xiangyang, Li, Yitao, Leng, Pei, Tang, Bo-Hui, Tang, Ronglin, Duan, Si-Bo, Liu, Meng, Zhou, Chenghu Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Albedo, Anisotropy
Comprehensive Evaluation of Water-Retention and Cooling Capacities of Wu, Jianping, Xiao, Zhenzhen, Zhang, Chaoqun, Yan, Wenting, Ren, Jiashun, Liao, Ziyin, Lafortezza, Raffaele, Li, Xueyan, Su, Yongxian Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Estimates of Irrigation Water Volume by Assimilation of Satellite Land Corbari, C., Paciolla, N., Sheffield, J., Labbassi, K., Dos Santos Araujo, D. C., Berendsen, S., Szantoi, Z. Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Runoff, Soil Texture, Brightness Temperature, SIGMA NAUGHT, Surface Soil Moisture
Exploring hydrological variable interconnections and enhancing predictions for datalimited basins through multitask learning Ouyang, Wenyu, Gu, Xuezhi, Ye, Lei, Liu, Xiaoning, Zhang, Chi Surface Pressure, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Evaporation, Humidity, Convection, Surface Winds, Rain, Land Surface Temperature, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics and drivers of forest ecosystems in Arrogante-Funes, Patricia, Arrogante-Funes, Fatima, Feijoo, Dina Osuna, Alvarez-Ripado, Ariadna, Novillo, Carlos J., Bruzon, Adrian G. Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Evaluation of the potential effects of forest vegetation cover on surface temperature in different geographical and climatic regions of Shaanxi Province, China Wang, Minghui, Liu, Jincheng Terrain Elevation, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Topographical Relief Maps, Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Evapotranspiration Behavior of Eucalyptus Plantations Compared to Other Land Uses and Land Covers in the Semiarid Zone of Brazil-South America. Leite, Marcos Esdras, Marques, Samuel Carlos Santos, Silva, Lucas Augusto Pereira da, Souza, Cristiano Marcelo Pereira de, Santo, Mario Marcos Espirito, Veloso, Maria das Dores Magalhaes Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Dynamics and associations of selected agrometeorological variables in Ssembajwe, Ronald, Mulinde, Catherine, Ddumba, Saul D., Kagezi, Godfrey H., Opio, Ronald, Kobusinge, Judith, Mugagga, Frank, Bamutaze, Yazidi, Gidudu, Anthony, Arinaitwe, Geoffrey, Voda, Mihai Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
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)
Ecosystem leaf area, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration responses to wildfire in the Columbia River basin Shi, Mingjie, McDowell, Nate, Huang, Huilin, Zahura, Faria, Li, Lingcheng, Chen, Xingyuan Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Comparison of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms and Remote Sensing for Orellana, Omar, Sandoval, Marco, Zagal, Erick, Hidalgo, Marcela, Suazo-Hernandez, Jonathan, Paulino, Leandro, Duarte, Efrain Reflectance, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Deep Soil Water Reservoirs Modulate Land Use and Drought Effects on the Water Budget of Amazon Headwaters Atwood, Abra, Coe, Michael T., Neill, Christopher, MaracahipesSantos, Leonardo, Brando, Paulo, Riskin, Shelby H., Castanho, Andrea, Deegan, Linda, Silveiro, Antonio Carlos, Macedo, Marcia N. Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Does water-saving irrigation truly conserve water? Yes and No Zhao, Nan, Zheng, Xinjun, Zhang, Bin, Tian, Shengchuan, Du, Lan, Li, Yan Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
ESTIMET: Enhanced and Spatial-Temporal Improvement of MODIS Claudino, Cinthia M.A., Bertrand, Guillaume F., Nobrega, Rodolfo L.B., Almeida, Cristiano das N., Gusmao, Ana Claudia V., Montenegro, Suzana M.G.L., Silva, Bernardo B., Patriota, Eduardo G., Lemos, Filipe C., Coutinho, Jaqueline V., de Sousa, Jose Welton Goncalo, Andrade, Joao M., Melo, Davi C.D., Rodrigues, Diogo Francisco B., Oliveira, Leidjane M., Xuan, Yunqing, Moura, Magna S.B., Montenegro, Abelardo A.A., Brocca, Luca, Corbari, Chiara, Jin, Yufang, Suvocarev, Kosana, Bezerra, Bergson, de Lima, Jose Romualdo S., Souza, Eduardo, Anache, Jamil A.A., Coelho, Victor Hugo R. Evapotranspiration, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Latent Heat Flux
Evaluating biogeophysical sensitivities to idealized deforestation in Mileva, Nikolina, Pongratz, Julia, Arora, Vivek K., Ito, Akihiko, Luyssaert, Sebastiaan, McDermid, Sonali S., Miller, Paul A., Peano, Daniele, Seferian, Roland, Zhang, Yanwu, Buermann, Wolfgang Albedo, Anisotropy, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Estimating Reference Evapotranspiration Using Reanalysis Data from the JimenezJimenez, Sergio Ivan, de Jesus MarcialPablo, Mariana, SanchezCohen, Ignacio, OjedaBustamante, Waldo, InzunzaIbarra, Marco Antonio, UrrietaVelazquez, Jose Alberto Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Evaluating Various Climate and Land-Use Products in Simulating Water Quality in Small Agricultural Watersheds Li, Yu, Thompson, Anita, Zhang, Zhou, Parajuli, Prem Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
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