MODIS/Terra VCF: Global Vegetation Cover Percentages at 250m Resolution

MODIS/Terra Vegetation Continuous Fields provide a sub-pixel, quantitative portrayal of global land surface cover. The data product layers include percent tree cover, percent non-tree cover, and percent non-vegetated at a 250-meter pixel resolution. This Version 6 product from NASA was decommissioned in July 2023, with users directed to the updated Version 6.1.

Use Cases

• Modeling global carbon stocks based on percent tree cover data.
• Monitoring deforestation and land use change over time using annual vegetation cover gradations.
• Enhancing climate and hydrological models with continuous, sub-pixel land surface cover inputs.
• Assessing vegetation recovery after disturbances using the non-tree and non-vegetated cover components.

Strengths

• Provides continuous, quantitative cover estimates for three ground components (tree, non-tree, non-vegetated).
• Offers global coverage at a 250-meter spatial resolution.
• Produced by NASA with improvements from upstream inputs over previous versions.

Limitations

• This specific Version 6 product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the annual period starting around day of year 65.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the MODIS/Terra sensor.

Time Range

Annual periods beginning around March 5-6.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:36:27.286814; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global