MODIS Terra Gap-Filled Smoothed NDVI 8-Day Grid

This dataset provides gap-filled and smoothed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values derived from MODIS Terra surface reflectance data at 250-meter resolution. It is produced by NASA's LAADS organization using a two-stage algorithm to smooth and fill gaps caused by clouds and atmospheric contamination, creating a continuous time series suitable for modeling. The dataset is available in multiple file formats including BIN, ISO, HTML, and PDF.

Use Cases

• Monitoring crop health and agricultural productivity over time using the smoothed NDVI values.
• Modeling carbon flux and vegetation dynamics for the North American Carbon Program (NACP) and similar initiatives.
• Analyzing land use and land cover change by tracking vegetation greenness patterns across seasons and years.
• Studying the impact of drought or climate events on ecosystems using the gap-filled, 8-day composite data.

Strengths

• Provides gap-filled data, addressing a common limitation of raw MODIS time series which contain clouds and atmospheric contamination.
• Applies a two-stage smoothing and gap-filling algorithm designed to maximize the use of high-quality observations.
• Its presence on multiple authoritative platforms (NASA Earthdata and Data.gov) signals its importance and reliability for the research community.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are not provided by any source, limiting precise technical assessment.
• Sources conflict on license details, with one specifying 'other-license-specified' and another listing 'None'.
• The exact temporal coverage of the data series is not stated in the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

NASA LAADS, derived from MODIS Terra surface reflectance products (MOD09).

Collection Method

Calculated and processed using a proprietary two-stage algorithm for smoothing and gap-filling.

Freshness

2026-03-13 00:17:48.487438

Geography

Global coverage using a sinusoidal (SIN) grid projection.