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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 [Dataset]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.006 Date Accessed: 2026-07-24

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
Hydroclimatic Rebound Drives Extreme Fire in California's Non-Forested McNorton, Joe, Moreno, Alberto, Turco, Marco, Keune, Jessica, Di Giuseppe, Francesca Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Hydrological and hydraulic modelling of flash flood induced by extreme rainfall in Liulin town, Hubei province, China, 2021 Xu, Zexing, Wang, Xiekang, He, Bingshun Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
How do geological map details influence the identification of geology-streamflow relationships in large-sample hydrology studies? do Nascimento, Thiago V. M., Rudlang, Julia, Gnann, Sebastian, Seibert, Jan, Hrachowitz, Markus, Fenicia, Fabrizio Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Albedo, Snow Cover
How does the mixing assumption influence the distributed tracer-aided Nan, Yi, Tian, Fuqiang, Li, Zongxing Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Forest Carbon Modeling Improved Through Hierarchical Assimilation of Zhou, Yu, Williams, Christopher A. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Vegetation Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
From MODIS to Sentinel-2: A Regional Comparative Analysis of Crop-Yield Adriko, Kennedy, Sedona, Rocco, Seguini, Lorenzo, Riedel, Morris, Cavallaro, Gabriele, Paris, Claudia Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Generating high accuracy multi-layer soil moisture at daily scale in the black soil region of China Chen, Liwen, Wang, Yangguang, Ren, Jingquan, Song, Haiqing, Zhang, Guangxin, Sun, Jingxuan, Wang, Lijun, Mu, Jia, Liu, Cong, Wang, Meiyu Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Future enhanced threshold effects of wildfire drivers could increase burned areas in northern mid-and high latitudes Zhao, Hang, Zhang, Zhengxiang, Wang, Xin, Zhen, Shuo, Zhang, Hongyan, Bu, Zhao-Jun, Zhao, Jianjun, Guo, Xiaoyi, Wei, Kejiang, Dong, Long Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Global vegetation production may decrease in this century due to rising atmospheric dryness Lin, Shangrong, Chen, Xiuzhi, Xia, Jiangzhou, Xin, Qinchuan, Fu, Zheng, He, Bin, Liu, Qinhuo, Piao, Shilong, Yuan, Wenping Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Future Water Yield Projections Under Climate Change Using Optimized and Downscaled Models via the MIDAS Approach Fallahi, Mahdis, Nelson, Stacy, Caldwell, Peter, Roise, Joseph, Beyene, Solomon, Peterson, M. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Mapping global leaf inclination angle (LIA) based on field measurement data Li, Sijia, Fang, Hongliang Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance, Anisotropy
Machine Learning Insights for Fire Impacts on Snow Disappearance Predictability in Northern California Mohanty, Yashnil, Abolafia-Rosenzweig, Ronnie, He, Cenlin, McGrath, Daniel Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Snow Melt, Snow Melt
Magnitude, drivers, and patterns of gross primary productivity of rice Mahbub, Riasad Bin, Reba, Michele L., Runkle, Benjamin R.K. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance
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
Impacts of meteorological drought on peak vegetation productivity of grasslands from perspectives of canopy structure and leaf physiology Bai, Wenrui, Wang, Huanjiong, Xiao, Jingfeng, Li, Xing, Ge, Quansheng Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Implementing a process-based representation of soil water movement in a Verbruggen, Wim, Warlind, David, Horion, Stephanie, Meunier, Felicien, Verbeeck, Hans, Wieckowski, Aleksander, Tagesson, Torbern, Schurgers, Guy Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Integrating the Interconnections Between Groundwater and Land Surface Maina, Fadji Z., Rosen, Dan, Abbaszadeh, Peyman, Yang, Chen, Kumar, Sujay V., Rodell, Matthew, Maxwell, Reed Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Characteristics, Snow Cover, Snow Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Joint assimilation of satellite soil moisture and vegetation conditions Chakraborty, Arijit, Saharia, Manabendra Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Influence of Arctic Conditions on the Diatom Diversity of Islands Within Barinova, Sophia, Gabyshev, Viktor A., Borisov, Boris, Rybnikov, Sviatoslav R. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Impact of model physics, meteorological forcing, and soil property data Zhang, Pei, Zheng, Donghai, van der Velde, Rogier, Wen, Jun, Su, Zhongbo Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Characteristics, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), 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
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
Large-Scale Retrieval and Quality Control of Leaf Area Index Based on Guo, Da, Song, Xiaoning, Hu, Ronghai, Mallen-Cooper, Max, Xing, Yuzhen, Li, Ruijin, Zeng, Hong, Guo, Han, Yan, Guangjian, Kardol, Paul Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI)
Persistent greenhouse conditions in Eocene North America point to lower climate sensitivity Smith, Krister T., Bruch, Angela A. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Observed decoupling of vegetation greenness and productivity despite regional coupling patterns across the Tibetan Plateau Lv, Jinxia, Zhao, Wenwu Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Topographical Relief Maps, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM)
Physics-augmented deep learning models for improving evapotranspiration estimation in global land regions Liu, Binrui, He, Xinguang, Lyu, Wenkai, Tao, Lizhi Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
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