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Description
The MOD44W Version 6 data product was decommissioned on July 18, 2024. Users are encouraged to use the MOD44W Version 6.1 data product.
The Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Water Mask (MOD44W) Version 6 data product provides a global map of surface water at 250 meter (m) spatial resolution. The data are available annually from 2000 to 2015. MOD44W Version 6 is derived using a decision tree classifier trained with MODIS data and validated with the Version 5 MOD44W data product. A series of masks are applied to address known issues caused by terrain shadow, burn scars, cloudiness, or ice cover in oceans. A primary improvement in Version 6 is the generation of time series data rather than a simple static representation of water, given that water bodies fluctuate in size and location over time due to both natural and anthropogenic causes. Provided in each MOD44W Version 6 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for land, water, no data, and an associated per pixel quality assurance (QA) layer that provides users with information on the determination of water.
Known Issues
The mask area for pixels outside of the Sinusoidal Grid for tile h27v14 should be labeled as 250 (Outside of Projection) instead of 0 (Land) and the QA values should be 10 (Fill) instead of 3 (Lower confidence land) for years 2000 through 2015.
Additional known issues are described in the User Guide and ATBD.
The following changes and improvements were implemented for the MODIS Version 6 land water mask data products: (1) Corrected for errors of many misplaced rivers in South America due to limited spatial resolution of previously used input data, (2) Improved data in the far northern latitudes, (3) Water extent provided as a time series that can be used to detect changes between 2000 and 2015, (4) Increased spatial resolution of 250 m. The Version 5 product was 500 m, (5) Improved terrain shadows with slope and elevation masking, and (6) Burned areas (scars) delineated.
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
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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)
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.
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Carroll, M., DiMiceli, C., Wooten, M., Hubbard, A., Sohlberg, R., & Townshend, J. (2017). MOD44W MODIS/Terra Land Water Mask Derived from MODIS and SRTM L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V006 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD44W.006 Date Accessed: 2026-05-27
Carroll, Mark, Charlene DiMiceli, Margaret Wooten, Alfred Hubbard, Robert Sohlberg, and John Townshend. “MOD44W MODIS/Terra Land Water Mask Derived from MODIS and SRTM L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V006.” NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2017. doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD44W.006. Date Accessed: 2026-05-27
Carroll, Mark, et al. MOD44W MODIS/Terra Land Water Mask Derived from MODIS and SRTM L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V006. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2017, doi:10.5067/MODIS/MOD44W.006. Date Accessed: 2026-05-27
File Naming Convention
MOD44W.A2003001.h28v14.006.2018033164227.hdf
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MOD44W) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2003001), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h28v14), the Version of the data collection (006), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2018033164227), and the Data Format (hdf).
Judd, Laura M., Al-Saadi, Jassim A., Szykman, James J., Valin, Lukas C., Janz, Scott J., Kowalewski, Matthew G., Eskes, Henk J., Veefkind, J. Pepijn, Cede, Alexander, Mueller, Moritz, Gebetsberger, Manuel, Swap, Robert, Pierce, R. Bradley, Nowlan, Caroline R., Abad, Gonzalo Gonzalez, Nehrir, Amin, Williams, David