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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schatzung der Verdunstung mithilfe von Machine- und Deep Learning-Methoden | Brenner, Claire, Frame, Jonathan, Nearing, Grey, Schulz, Karsten | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Responses of vegetation greenness and carbon cycle to extreme droughts | Deng, Ying, Wang, Xuhui, Wang, Kai, Ciais, Philippe, Tang, Shuchang, Jin, Lei, Li, Lili, Piao, Shilong | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Remote sensing to study mangrove fragmentation and its impacts on Leaf Area Index and gross primary productivity in the South of Peninsular Malaysia | Kanniah, Kasturi Devi, Kang, Chuen Siang, Sharma, Sahadev, Amir, A. Aldrie | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity | |
| Satellite time series data reveal interannual and seasonal spatiotemporal evapotranspiration patterns in China in response to effect factors | Cheng, Minghan, Jiao, Xiyun, Jin, Xiuliang, Li, Binbin, Liu, Kaihua, Shi, Lei | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Surface Pressure, Heat Flux, Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Surface Temperature, Humidity, Surface Winds, Rain, Precipitation Rate, Snow, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Temperature, Land Surface Temperature, Snow Water Equivalent, Runoff | |
| The impact of deforestation on rainfall in Africa: a data-driven | Duku, Confidence, Hein, Lars | 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 | |
| Ung dung san pham anh chi so dien tich la (MODIS LAI) va he thong quan trac du lieu thoi tiet trong mo hinh uoc oan nang suat lua | Quang, Truong Chi, Le, Vu Bang, Minh, Vo Quang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Towards crop yield estimation at a finer spatial resolution using machine learning methods over agricultural regions | Liao, Dehai, Niu, Jun, Lu, Na, Shen, Qianxi | 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) | |
| The value of water isotope data on improving process understanding in a glacierized catchment on the Tibetan Plateau | Nan, Yi, Tian, Lide, He, Zhihua, Tian, Fuqiang, Shao, Lili | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Snow Cover | |
| Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of a remote-sensing-based penman-monteith model to meteorological and land surface input variables | Majozi, Nobuhle, Mannaerts, Chris, Ramoelo, Abel, Mathieu, Renaud, Verhoef, Wouter | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Albedo, Anisotropy | |
| The Impacts of Climate and Wildfire on Ecosystem Gross Primary Productivity in Alaska | Madani, Nima, Parazoo, Nicholas C., Kimball, John S., Reichle, Rolf H., Chatterjee, Abhishek, Watts, Jennifer D., Saatchi, Sassan, Liu, Zhihua, Endsley, Arthur, Tagesson, Torbern, Rogers, Brendan M., Xu, Liang, Wang, Jonathan A., Magney, Troy, Miller, Charles E. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity | |
| The importance of antecedent vegetation and drought conditions as global drivers of burnt area | Kuhn-Regnier, Alexander, Voulgarakis, Apostolos, Nowack, Peer, Forkel, Matthias, Prentice, I. Colin, Harrison, Sandy P. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Functionalities of surface depressions in runoff routing and hydrologic connectivity modeling | Wang, Ning, Chu, Xuefeng, Zhang, Xiaodong | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Generation of spatio-temporally continuous evapotranspiration and its components by coupling a two-source energy balance model and a deep neural network over the Heihe River Basin | Cui, Yaokui, Song, Lisheng, Fan, Wenjie | Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance | |
| Feedback From Vegetation to Interannual Variations of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall | Budakoti, Sachin, Chauhan, Tejasvi, Murtugudde, Raghu, Karmakar, Subhankar, Ghosh, Subimal | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 variation in radiative and turbulent fluxes over winter wheat ecosystem along Indo-Gangetic region | Pokhariyal, Shweta, Patel, Natvar | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation | |
| 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 | |
| Evapotranspiration Changes over the European Alps: Consistency of Trends | Castelli, Mariapina | Evapotranspiration, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Evapotranspiration in the Amazon: spatial patterns, seasonality, and recent trends in observations, reanalysis, and climate models | Baker, Jessica C. A., Garcia-Carreras, Luis, Gloor, Manuel, Marsham, John H., Buermann, Wolfgang, da Rocha, Humberto R., Nobre, Antonio D., de Araujo, Alessandro Carioca, Spracklen, Dominick V. | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Soil Porosity | |
| 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) | |
| Estimating ecosystem maximum light use efficiency based on the water use efficiency principle | Gan, Rong, Zhang, Lu, Yang, Yuting, Wang, Enli, Woodgate, William, Zhang, Yongqiang, Haverd, Vanessa, Kong, Dongdong, Fischer, Tony, Chiew, Francis, Yu, Qiang | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) | |
| Estimating Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) over Rice-Wheat-Rotation | Duan, Zexia, Yang, Yuanjian, Zhou, Shaohui, Gao, Zhiqiu, Zong, Lian, Fan, Sihui, Yin, Jian | 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 | |
| Greening drylands despite warming consistent with carbon dioxide fertilization effect | Gonsamo, Alemu, Ciais, Philippe, Miralles, Diego G., Sitch, Stephen, Dorigo, Wouter, Lombardozzi, Danica, Friedlingstein, Pierre, Nabel, Julia E. M. S., Goll, Daniel S., O'Sullivan, Michael, Arneth, Almut, Anthoni, Peter, Jain, Atul K., Wiltshire, Andy, Peylin, Philippe, Cescatti, Alessandro | Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar) |