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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

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6 LAI and FPAR data products: (1) The Version 6 product uses the daily L2G-lite surface reflectance as input as opposed to MODAGAGG used in Version 5, (2) Products are generated at native resolution of 500 m rather than the 1000 m of the Version 5, and (3) Version 6 uses an improved multi-year land cover product.

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra
Instruments
MODIS
Projects
TERRA
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
2000-02-18 to 2023-02-17
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
C2763298089-LPCLOUD
Data State
DEPRECATED
Number of Files/Granules
0
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) ,
Leaf Area Index (LAI)

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. (2015). MOD15A2H MODIS/Terra Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V006 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.006 Date Accessed: 2026-06-17

File Naming Convention

MOD15A2H.A2002273.h20v06.006.2015151112325.hdf

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

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Impacts of juniper woody plant encroachment into grasslands on local Wang, Jie, Xiao, Xiangming, Basara, Jeffrey, Wu, Xiaocui, Bajgain, Rajen, Qin, Yuanwei, Doughty, Russell B., III, Berrien Moore Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Albedo, Anisotropy
Impacts of land use/land cover distributions and vegetation amount on land surface temperature simulation in East China Pan, Yongjie, Gao, Yanhong, Li, Suosuo Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Improving modeling of ecosystem gross primary productivity through Yang, Dong, Xu, Xianli, Xiao, Fengjin, Xu, Chaohao, Luo, Wei, Tao, Lizhi Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Improving the global MODIS GPP model by optimizing parameters with FLUXNET data Huang, Xiaojuan, Xiao, Jingfeng, Wang, Xufeng, Ma, Mingguo Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Impacts of climate extremes on ecosystem metrics in southwest China Shao, Hui, Zhang, Yuandong, Gu, Fengxue, Shi, Chunming, Miao, Ning, Liu, Shirong Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Impacts of vegetation properties and temperature characteristics on species richness patterns in drylandsCase study from Xinjiang Zhang, Chunyan, Li, Liping, Guan, Yanning, Cai, Danlu, Chen, Hong, Bian, Xiaolin, Guo, Shan Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Eco-economic environment coupling based on urban RSEI theory Lu, Yitong, Li, Minghang Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Reflectance
Enhanced surface urban heat islands due to divergent urban-rural greening trends Chen, Chi, Li, Dan, Keenan, Trevor F Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Population Size
Effects of mosaic representation of land use/land cover on skin temperature and energy Fluxes in Noah-MP Land Surface Model Over China Zhang, Guo, Li, Jianduo, Zhou, Guangsheng, Cai, Xitian, Gao, Wenhua, Peng, Xindong, Chen, Yueli Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature
Crop Yield Estimation at Gram Panchayat Scale by Integrating Field, Weather and Satellite Data with Crop Simulation Models Milesi, Cristina, Kukunuri, Mallikarjun Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Reflectance, Albedo, Anisotropy, Shortwave Radiation, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Designing sustainable pathways for the livestock sector: the example of Atsbi, Ethiopia and Bama, Burkina Faso Pfeifer, Catherine, Morris, Joanne, Ensor, Jonathan, Ouedraogo-Kone, Salifou, Mulatu, Dawit W., Wakeyo, Mekonnen Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Detecting forest degradation in the three-north forest shelterbelt in China from multi-scale satellite images Yu, Tao, Liu, Pengju, Zhang, Qiang, Ren, Yi, Yao, Jingning Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Evaluating landscape influences on hydrologic behavior with a fully-integrated groundwater surface water model Frey, S.K., Miller, K., Khader, O., Taylor, A., Morrison, D., Xu, X., Berg, S.J., Hwang, H.-T., Sudicky, E.A., Lapen, D.R. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Evaluating Downscaling Factors of Microwave Satellite Soil Moisture Based on Machine Learning Method. Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 133 Sun, Hao, Cui, Yajing Albedo, Anisotropy, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Surface Soil Moisture
Evaluation of alternative two-source remote sensing models in partitioning of land evapotranspiration Chen, Han, Jeanne Huang, Jinhui, McBean, Edward, Singh, Vijay P. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Evaluation and comparison of light use efficiency models for their sensitivity to the diffuse PAR fraction and aerosol loading in China Li, Xin, Liang, Hongyu, Cheng, Weiming Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Albedo, Anisotropy
ETWatch cloud: APIs for regional actual evapotranspiration data Wu, Fangming, Wu, Bingfang, Zhu, Weiwei, Yan, Nana, Ma, Zonghan, Wang, Linjiang, Lu, Yuming, Xu, Jiaming Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Albedo
Coupling remote sensing and crop growth model to estimate national wheat yield in Ethiopia Beyene, Awetahegn Niguse, Zeng, Hongwei, Wu, Bingfang, Zhu, Liang, Gebremicael, Tesfay Gebretsadkan, Zhang, Miao, Bezabh, Temesgen Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Cross-ECV consistency at global scale: LAI and FAPAR changes Mota, Bernardo, Gobron, Nadine, Morgan, Olivier, Cappucci, Fabrizio, Lanconelli, Christian, Robustelli, Monica Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Characteristics
Cross-scale evaluation of dynamic crop growth in WRF and Noah-MP-Crop Partridge, Trevor F., Winter, Jonathan M., Kendall, Anthony D., Hyndman, David W. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Current and near-term advances in Earth observation for ecological Ustin, Susan L., Middleton, Elizabeth M. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Terrain Elevation, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Topographical Relief Maps, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Desertification of Iran in the early twenty-first century: assessment using climate and vegetation indices Eskandari Dameneh, Hadi, Gholami, Hamid, Telfer, Matt W., Comino, Jesus Rodrigo, Collins, Adrian L., Jansen, John D. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Emissivity, Land Surface Temperature
Deep convolutional neural networks for surface coal mines determination from sentinel-2 images Madhuanand, L., Sadavarte, P., Visschedijk, A.J.H., Denier Van Der Gon, H.A.C., Aben, I., Osei, F.B. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Albedo, Anisotropy
Daily flow simulation in Thailand Part I: Testing a distributed hydrological model with seamless parameter maps based on global data Wannasin, C., Brauer, C.C., Uijlenhoet, R., van Verseveld, W.J., Weerts, A.H. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Gross primary productivity of Brazilian Savanna (Cerrado) estimated by different remote sensing-based models Biudes, Marcelo Sacardi, Vourlitis, George Louis, Velasque, Maisa Caldas Souza, Machado, Nadja Gomes, Danelichen, Victor Hugo de Morais, Pavao, Vagner Marques, Arruda, Paulo Henrique Zanella, Nogueira, Jose de Souza Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
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