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Description
The Terra and Aqua combined Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Cover Dynamics (MCD12Q2) Version 6.1 data product provides global land surface phenology metrics at yearly intervals. The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 data product is derived from time series of the 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) calculated from MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). Vegetation phenology metrics at 500 meter spatial resolution are identified for up to two detected growing cycles per year. For pixels with more than two valid vegetation cycles, the data represent the two cycles with the largest NBAR-EVI2 amplitudes.
Provided in each MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for the total number of vegetation cycles detected for the product year, the onset of greenness, greenup midpoint, maturity, peak greenness, senescence, greendown midpoint, dormancy, EVI2 minimum, EVI2 amplitude, integrated EVI2 over a vegetation cycle, as well as overall and phenology metric-specific quality information. SDS layers may be multi-dimensional with up to two valid vegetation cycles.
For areas where the NBAR-EVI2 values are missing due to cloud cover or other reasons, the data gaps are filled with good quality NBAR-EVI2 values from the year directly preceding or following the product year.
Known Issues
Known issues are described in Section 3.2 of the User Guide.
The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 Land Cover 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), (3) An improvement was made to the approach for snow filtering, and (4) The processing timeline was adjusted to generate products 6 months after the end of the calendar year.
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
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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
C2484079943-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
7560
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Plant Phenology
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Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
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.
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Citation Copied
Friedl, M., Gray, J., & Sulla-Menashe, D. (2022). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Dynamics Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q2.061 Date Accessed: 2026-07-05
Friedl, M., Gray, J., & Sulla-Menashe, D. (2022). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Dynamics Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q2.061 Date Accessed: 2026-07-05
Friedl, Mark, et al. “MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Dynamics Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061.” NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2022, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q2.061. Date Accessed: 2026-07-05
File Naming Convention
MCD12Q2.A2023001.h07v03.061.2024211022728.hdf
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD12Q2) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2023001), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h07v03), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2024211022728), and the Data Format (hdf).
Luo, Xiangzhong, Zhou, Haoran, Satriawan, Tin W., Tian, Jiaqi, Zhao, Ruiying, Keenan, Trevor F., Griffith, Daniel M., Sitch, Stephen, Smith, Nicholas G., Still, Christopher J.