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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community forestry dominates the recent land greening amid climate | Gao, Shenshen, Wang, Lang, Hao, Lu, Sun, Ge | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Comparative performance of regionalization methods for model | Karki, Nischal, Shakya, Narendra Man, Pandey, Vishnu Prasad, Devkota, Laxmi Prasad, Pradhan, Ananta Man Singh, Lamichhane, Suraj | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) | |
| Development of High-Resolution Soil Hydraulic Parameters with Use of | Thomas, Juby, Gupta, Manika, Srivastava, Prashant K., Pandey, Dharmendra K., Bindlish, Rajat | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Vegetation Water Content, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Skin Temperature | |
| Determination of Spatially-Distributed Hydrological Ecosystem Services | Ha, Lan Thanh, Bastiaanssen, Wim G. M. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Developing spring wheat in the Noah-MP land surface model (v4. 4) for growing season dynamics and responses to temperature stress | Zhang, Zhe, Li, Yanping, Chen, Fei, Harder, Phillip, Helgason, Warren, Famiglietti, James, Valayamkunnath, Prasanth, He, Cenlin, Li, Zhenhua | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Coupled human-natural system impacts of a winter weather whiplash event | Creed, Irena, Hewitt, Christopher, Casson, Nora, Contosta, Alexandra, Campbell, John, Lutz, David, Morzillo, Anita | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Deep learning reveals rapid vegetation greening in changing climate from 1988 to 2018 on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau | Lou, Peiqing, Wu, Tonghua, Yang, Sizhong, Wu, Xiaodong, Chen, Jianjun, Zhu, Xiaofan, Chen, Jie, Lin, Xingchen, Li, Ren, Shang, Chengpeng, Wang, Dong, La, Yune, Wen, Amin, Ma, Xin | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Effect of Socioeconomic Variables in Predicting Global Fire Ignition | Mukunga, Tichaona, Forkel, Matthias, Forrest, Matthew, Zotta, Ruxandra-Maria, Pande, Nirlipta, Schlaffer, Stefan, Dorigo, Wouter | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Effect of Solar Farms on Soil Erosion in Hilly Environments: A Modeling | Liu, Hu, Wu, Chuandong, Yu, Yang, Zhao, Wenzhi, Liu, Jintao, Yu, Hailong, Zhuang, Yanli, Yetemen, Omer | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Divergent seasonal responses of carbon fluxes to extreme droughts over | Deng, Ying, Wang, Xuhui, Lu, Tongping, Du, Haochun, Ciais, Philippe, Lin, Xin | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Diverging Northern Hemisphere Trends in Meteorological Versus Ecological | Li, Xiaolu, Ault, Toby, Evans, Colin P., Lehner, Flavio, Carrillo, Carlos M., Donnelly, Alison, Crimmins, Theresa, Gallinat, Amanda S., Schwartz, Mark D. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Diverse responses of canopy conductance to heatwaves | Wang, Longhao, Zhang, Yongqiang, Ma, Ning, Song, Peilin, Tian, Jing, Zhang, Xuanze, Xu, Zhenwu | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity | |
| Controls and variability of soil respiration temperature sensitivity | Yang, Zhihan, Luo, Xinrui, Shi, Yuehong, Zhou, Tao, Luo, Ke, Lai, Yunsen, Yu, Peng, Liu, Liang, Olchev, Alexander, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Hao, Dalei, Jian, Jinshi, Fan, Shaohui, Cai, Chunju, Tang, Xiaolu | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Continuity of Global MODIS Terrestrial Primary Productivity Estimates in | Endsley, K. Arthur, Zhao, Maosheng, Kimball, John S., Devadiga, Sadashiva | Vegetation, Soils, Atmospheric Temperature, Precipitation, Terrain Elevation, Biomass, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Biomass Dynamics, Primary Production, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Forest Composition/Vegetation Structure | |
| Dynamics of global dryland vegetation were more sensitive to soil moisture: Evidence from multiple vegetation indices | Liu, Huanhuan, Liu, Yue, Chen, Yu, Fan, Mengen, Chen, Yin, Gang, Chengcheng, You, Yongfa, Wang, Zhuonan | 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) | |
| Dynamics of Tree Cover on the Adaptive Genetic Variation and Evolutionary Power of the Argan Forests from the Essaouira Region of Morocco Facing Climate ... | Alami, Mohammed, Belkadi, Bouchra, Yatrib, Chaimaa, Medraoui, Leila, Pakhrou, Ouafae, Rabeh, Karim, Filali-Maltouf, Abdelkarim | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification | |
| Dynamics of Vegetation Productivity in Floodplain Meadows of the Mongun-Taiginsky District of the Republic of Tyva According to Terra MODIS Data | Zhukova, E. Yu., Barsukova, I. N., Zhukov, A. A. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Drylands contribute disproportionately to observed global productivity | Wang, Shuai, Fu, Bojie, Wei, Fangli, Piao, Shilong, Maestre, Fernando T., Wang, Lixin, Jiao, Wenzhe, Liu, Yanxu, Li, Yan, Li, Changjia, Zhao, Wenwu | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification | |
| Enhancing Flood Simulation in Data-Limited Glacial River Basins through | Ren, Weiwei, Li, Xin, Zheng, Donghai, Zeng, Ruijie, Su, Jianbin, Mu, Tinghua, Wang, Yingzheng | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Total Surface Precipitation Rate | |
| How to enhance hydrological predictions in hydrologically distinct | Mangukiya, Nikunj K., Sharma, Ashutosh, Shen, Chaopeng | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| Global photosynthetic capacity of C3 biomes retrieved from solar-induced | Liu, Yihong, Chen, Jing M., He, Liming, Wang, Rong, Smith, Nicholas G., Keenan, Trevor F., Rogers, Cheryl, Li, Wenyu, Leng, Jiye | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| How is the performance of satellite-based product suites in monitoring long-term dynamics of vegetation photosynthesis over global mountainous areas? | Xie, Xinyao, Li, Ainong | Atmospheric Radiation, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Radiative Flux, Radiative Forcing, Surface Radiative Properties, Albedo, Emissivity, Cloud Properties, Cloud Fraction, Cloud Optical Depth/Thickness, Skin Temperature, Skin Temperature, Sea Surface Skin Temperature, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Solar Induced Fluorescence, Anisotropy, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux | |
| How land surface characteristics influence the development of flash drought through the drivers of soil moisture and vapor pressure deficit | Lowman, Lauren E. L., Christian, Jordan I., Hunt, Eric D. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Improving the Quality of MODIS LAI Products by Exploiting Spatiotemporal | Wang, Jingrui, Yan, Kai, Gao, Si, Pu, Jiabin, Liu, Jinxiu, Park, Taejin, Bi, Jian, Maeda, Eduardo Eiji, Heiskanen, Janne, Knyazikhin, Yuri, Myneni, Ranga B. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Increased background precipitation masks the moisture deficit caused by | Yu, Lingxue, Li, Xuan, Bu, Kun, Yan, Fengqin, Zhang, Shuwen, Liu, Tingxiang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux |