MOD13C1: Global Vegetation Indices on a 0.05-Degree Climate Grid

MOD13C1 Version 6 provides two primary vegetation indices, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), at a 0.05-degree geographic Climate Modeling Grid resolution. The dataset is a cloud-free spatial composite of 16-day, 1-kilometer data, containing fields for VI quality assurance, reflectance data, angular information, and spatial statistics. This product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, with users directed to the updated Version 6.1.

Use Cases

• Monitoring global vegetation health trends based on 16-day NDVI and EVI composites.
• Assessing land surface changes in high biomass regions using the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI).
• Incorporating cloud-free, spatially aggregated vegetation data into climate models via the 0.05-degree Climate Modeling Grid.
• Performing quality analysis of vegetation indices using the provided VI QA, reflectance, and spatial statistics fields.

Strengths

• Provides global coverage at a consistent 0.05-degree (5,600 meter) Climate Modeling Grid resolution, consisting of 3,600 rows and 7,200 columns.
• Contains two established vegetation indices (NDVI and EVI) alongside quality assurance, reflectance, and spatial statistics data fields.
• Issues identified in Collection 6, such as aerosol representation errors over bright surfaces, were addressed in the subsequent Collection 6.1 reprocessing.

Limitations

• The dataset is a decommissioned version (V006), with users explicitly directed to use the newer MOD13C1 Version 6.1 product.
• Platform metadata is incomplete, with conflicts on last update dates (2026 vs. 2023) and missing information on row counts, file size, and a complete column list.
• Known issues existed in the original Collection 6 processing, particularly impacting data quality over arid, bright surfaces.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), MODIS/Terra sensor.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing; Level 3 product derived from gridded 16-day 1-kilometer MOD13A2 data.

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict between sources: one lists 2026-04-10, another lists 2023-02-17. The product itself was decommissioned on 2023-07-31.

Geography

Global