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Description

The MOD15A2H Version 6.1 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 the MODIS Version 6.1 LAI/FPAR data product: (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, and (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).

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 Present
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
C2218777082-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
345808
Processing Level
4
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Leaf Area Index (LAI) ,
Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)

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. (2021). MODIS/Terra Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.061 Date Accessed: 2026-06-04

File Naming Convention

MOD15A2H.A2025209.h35v09.061.2025218040352.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD15A2H) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025209), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h35v09), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025218040352), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Spatiotemporal estimation of groundwater and surface water conditions by Kim, Soobin, Lee, Eunhee, Hwang, Hyoun-Tae, Pyo, JongCheol, Yun, Daeun, Baek, Sang-Soo, Cho, Kyung Hwa Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Upscaling Soil Organic Carbon Measurements at the Continental Scale Wang, Zhuonan, Kumar, Jitendra, WeintraubLeff, Samantha R., ToddBrown, Katherine, Mishra, Umakant, Sihi, Debjani Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Varied responses of Amazon forests to the 2005, 2010, and 2015/2016 She, Xiaojun, Li, Yao, Jiao, Wenzhe, Sun, Yuanheng, Ni, Xiangnan, Zuo, Zhenpeng, Knyazikhin, Yuri, Myneni, Ranga B. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Total Surface Precipitation Rate
Water yield response to forest treatment patterns in a sierra nevada watershed Smith, Katy A., Schneider, Katie E., Kinoshita, Alicia M., Kurzweil, Jake, Prucha, Bob, Hogue, Terri S. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Understanding drivers of the spatial variability of soil organic carbon Li, YaTing, Yang, RenMin, Zhang, Xin, Xu, Lu, Zhu, ChangMing Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Uncertainties of biogenic VOC emissions caused by land cover data and implications on ozone mitigation strategies for the Yangtze River Delta region Huang, Ling, Zhao, Xiaohui, Chen, Chuchu, Tan, Jiani, Li, Yuewu, Chen, Hui, Wang, Yangjun, Li, Li, Guenther, Alex, Huang, Huan Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Tree species diversity impacts on ecosystem services of temperate forests Bai, Jialing, Ren, Chunying, Shi, Xinying, Xiang, Hengxing, Zhang, Wenmin, Jiang, Hailing, Ren, Yongxing, Xi, Yanbiao, Wang, Zongming, Mao, Dehua Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Spatiotemporal variability and controlling factors of ecosystem water use efficiency in India Bejagam, Vijaykumar, Singh, Akriti, Sharma, Ashutosh Longwave Radiation, Shortwave Radiation, Soil Heat Budget, Soil Heat Budget, Soil Temperature, Soil Temperature, Soil Infiltration, Soil Infiltration, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Surface Soil Moisture, Root Zone Soil Moisture, Soil Moisture/Water Content, Evaporation, Surface Water, Runoff Rate, Average Flow, Average Flow, Precipitation, Snow/Ice, Snow Depth, Snow Melt, Snow/Ice Temperature, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Absorption, Radiative Forcing, Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Observed and simulated local climate responses to tropical deforestation Smith, Callum, Robertson, Eddy, Chadwick, Robin, Kelley, Douglas I, Argles, Arthur P K, Coelho, Caio A S, de Souza, Dayana C, Kubota, Paulo Y, Talamoni, Isabela L, Spracklen, Dominick V, Baker, Jessica C A Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Albedo, Anisotropy, Evapotranspiration, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Latent Heat Flux, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
A deep transfer learning framework for mapping high spatiotemporal resolution LAI Zhou, Junxiong, Yang, Qi, Liu, Licheng, Kang, Yanghui, Jia, Xiaowei, Chen, Min, Ghosh, Rahul, Xu, Shaomin, Jiang, Chongya, Guan, Kaiyu, Kumar, Vipin, Jin, Zhenong Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
A county-level soybean yield prediction framework coupled with XGBoost Li, Yuanchao, Zeng, Hongwei, Zhang, Miao, Wu, Bingfang, Zhao, Yan, Yao, Xia, Cheng, Tao, Qin, Xingli, Wu, Fangming Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
A Novel Approach for Predicting Large Wildfires Using Machine Learning Agrawal, Nikita, Nelson, Peder V., Low, Russanne D. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Application of Different Weighting Schemes and Stochastic Simulations to Parameterization Processes Considering Observation Error: Implications for ... Lee, Eunhee, Lee, Hyeonju, Park, Dongkyu, Hwang, Hyoun-Tae, Park, Changhui Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Approaches to assessing the daily average ground surface soil heat flux on a regional scale over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Yang, Cheng, Wu, Tonghua, Hu, Guojie, Zhu, Xiaofan, Yao, Jimin, Li, Ren, Zhao, Lin, Zhang, Yinghui Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Accelerated vegetative growth measured by gross primary productivity in Zuo, Chan, Wang, Junbang, Zhang, Xiujuan, Watson, Alan E. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Acclimation of phenology relieves leaf longevity constraints in Marques, Laura, Hufkens, Koen, Bigler, Christof, Crowther, Thomas W., Zohner, Constantin M., Stocker, Benjamin D. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Plant Phenology, Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
A physically-based potential evapotranspiration model for global water Liu, Ziwei, Wang, Taihua, Li, Changming, Yang, Wencong, Yang, Hanbo Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Balancing the Effects of Forest Conservation and Restoration on South Peng, Jian, Hu, Tao, Qiu, Sijing, Hu, Yi'na, Dong, Jianquan, Lin, Yifan Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
BESSv2. 0: A satellite-based and coupled-process model for quantifying long-term global landatmosphere fluxes Li, Bolun, Ryu, Youngryel, Jiang, Chongya, Dechant, Benjamin, Liu, Jiangong, Yan, Yulin, Li, Xing Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Total Surface Precipitation Rate
Carbon dynamics of Western North American boreal forests in response to stand-replacing disturbances Yu, Ling, Fan, Lei, Ciais, Philippe, Sitch, Stephen, Fensholt, Rasmus, Xiao, Xiangming, Yuan, Wenping, Chen, Jingming, Zhang, Yingtong, Wu, Xiaocui, Qin, Yuanwei, Ma, Mingguo, Chang, Zhongbing, Wang, Mengjia, Yan, Kai, Song, Lisheng, Wigneron, Jean-Pierre Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Aquatic Ecosystems, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Vegetation, Soils
Assessing the impacts of past and ongoing deforestation on rainfall Duku, Confidence, Hein, Lars Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Albedo, Anisotropy, Reflectance
Bio-geophysical feedback to climate caused by the conversion of Amazon Forest to soybean plantations Zhang, Jie, Wu, Jin, Hughes, Alice Catherine, Kaplan, Jed O., Maeda, Eduardo Eiji Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Albedo, Anisotropy
Chemical identification of new particle formation and growth precursors through positive matrix factorization of ambient ion measurements Katz, Daniel John, Abdelhamid, Aroob, Stark, Harald, Canagaratna, Manjula R., Worsnop, Douglas R., Browne, Eleanor C. Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Characterizing Errors Using Satellite Metadata for EcoHydrological Model Calibration Zou, Hui, Marshall, Lucy, Sharma, Ashish Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
Assessing the sensitivity of multi-frequency passive microwave vegetation optical depth to vegetation properties Schmidt, Luisa, Forkel, Matthias, Zotta, Ruxandra-Maria, Scherrer, Samuel, Dorigo, Wouter A., Kuhn-Regnier, Alexander, van der Schalie, Robin, Yebra, Marta Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
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