MODIS/Terra: Global Vegetation Indices at 500m Resolution

MOD13A1 V006 provides 16-day composite vegetation indices derived from NASA's Terra satellite at a 500-meter spatial resolution. Its two primary layers are the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for continuity with historical NOAA data and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) for improved sensitivity in high-biomass regions. The dataset also includes surface reflectance bands and quality assurance layers, but it was decommissioned in July 2023 in favor of a corrected version.

Use Cases

• Monitoring crop health and agricultural productivity based on NDVI/EVI time series.
• Assessing forest cover change and biomass using the Enhanced Vegetation Index layer.
• Tracking seasonal vegetation phenology cycles from 16-day composite data.
• Validating land surface models with included surface reflectance bands (red, NIR, blue, mid-IR).
• Performing quality control on vegetation indices using the provided QA layers.

Strengths

• Provides two distinct vegetation indices (NDVI and EVI) for complementary analysis.
• Offers a 500-meter spatial resolution for detailed regional to global studies.
• Includes ancillary data layers such as surface reflectance bands and observation metadata.

Limitations

• The dataset is deprecated; Version 6 was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, due to known data quality issues.
• Known issues include unexpected missing data, incorrect 'NoData' flags, spikes in NDVI values, and misassigned VI Usefulness bits.
• Metadata on row count, file size, and specific column names is unavailable across all sources.

Provenance

Source

NASA LPCLOUD, derived from MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite.

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing, with a pixel-value selection algorithm based on low clouds, low view angle, and highest NDVI/EVI over a 16-day period.

Freshness

2026-04-10 00:40:36.638717

Geography

Global