MODIS/Aqua Vegetation Indices: 16-Day Global Climate Modeling Grid

The dataset provides global, cloud-free composites of vegetation indices every 16 days. It contains the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) at a 0.05-degree (5,600-meter) resolution, along with quality assurance and reflectance data. The data is produced by NASA's Aqua satellite and is part of the MODIS Version 6.1 product suite.

Use Cases

• Monitor global vegetation health and phenology based on the 16-day NDVI and EVI composites.
• Model climate-biosphere interactions based on the 0.05-degree Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) data.
• Assess data quality for high biomass regions using the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) layer.
• Analyze spatial statistics for vegetation trends based on the provided mean, standard deviation, and pixel count fields.

Strengths

• Provides two primary vegetation indices (NDVI and EVI) with improved sensitivity over high biomass regions.
• Offers global coverage on a consistent 0.05-degree Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) with 3,600 rows and 7,200 columns.
• Includes quality assurance (VI QA), reflectance data, and angular information for validation.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Spatial composites of gridded 16-day 1-kilometer data from the MYD13A2 product, projected to a 0.05-degree geographic grid.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated in the provided input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:46:10.573193; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global