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Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid

MCD12Q1

Short Name: MCD12Q1
Sample image of MCD12Q1

This image represents the 2005 land cover-types for the western United States (h08/v05). This first SDS layer depicts the IGBP classification. The predominant light-brown color represents open shrublands. Varying shades of green portray evergreen and deciduous forests. Sienna shades are areas of woody savannas and savannas. Closed shrublands are characterized in thistle, and yellow indicates croplands. Red represents urban and built-up areas, while coral indicates barren and sparse vegetation.

The MODIS Land Cover Type product (Short Name: MCD12Q1) provides data characterizing five global land cover classification systems.  In addition, it provides a land-cover type assessment, and quality-control information.

Overview

The MODIS Land Cover Type product contains five classification schemes, which describe land cover properties derived from observations spanning a year’s input of Terra- and Aqua-MODIS data.  The primary land cover scheme identifies 17 land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which includes 11 natural vegetation classes, 3 developed and mosaicked land classes, and three non-vegetated land classes.

The MODIS Terra + Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid product incorporates five different land cover classification schemes, derived through a supervised decision-tree classification method:

  • Land Cover Type 1: IGBP global vegetation classification scheme
  • Land Cover Type 2: University of Maryland (UMD) scheme
  • Land Cover Type 3: MODIS-derived LAI/fPAR scheme
  • Land Cover Type 4: MODIS-derived Net Primary Production (NPP) scheme
  • Land Cover Type 5: Plant Functional Type (PFT) scheme

V051 Land Cover Type products are produced with revised training data and certain algorithm refinements.  For further details, please consult the following paper:

Friedl, M. A., Sulla-Menashe, D., Tan, B., Schneider, A., Ramankutty, N., Sibley, A., andHuang, X. (2010). MODIS Collection 5 global land cover: Algorithm refinements and characterization of new datasets. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114, 168–182.

 

Layers

V051 MODIS Land Cover Type HDF Science Data Set Layers

Science Data Set Units Data-Type Fill Value Valid Range
Land Cover Type 1 (IGBP)* Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 2 (UMD)* Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 3 (LAI/fPAR)* Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 4 (NPP/BGC)* Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 5 (PFT)** Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 1 Assessment % Integer 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 2 Assessment Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 3 Assessment Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 4 Assessment Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 5 Assessment Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover QC Concatenated Flags 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 1 Secondary Class # 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Type 1 Secondary % Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Property 1 Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Property 2 Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254
Land Cover Property 3 Not populated 8-bit unsigned 255 0 – 254

 

 *Land Cover Types Description (1 through 4 classification schemes)

Class IGBP (Type 1) UMD (Type 2) LAI/fPAR (Type 3) NPP (Type 4)
0 Water Water Water Water
1 Evergreen Needleleaf forest Evergreen Needleleaf forest Grasses/Cereal crops Evergreen Needleleaf vegetation
2 Evergreen Broadleaf forest Evergreen Broadleaf forest Shrubs Evergreen Broadleaf vegetation
3 Deciduous Needleleaf forest Deciduous Needleleaf forest Broadleaf crops Deciduous Needleleaf vegetation
4 Deciduous Broadleaf forest Deciduous Broadleaf forest Savanna Deciduous Broadleaf vegetation
5 Mixed forest Mixed forest Evergreen Broadleaf forest Annual Broadleaf vegetation
6 Closed shrublands Closed shrublands Deciduous Broadleaf forest Annual grass vegetation
7 Open shrublands Open shrublands Evergreen Needleleaf forest Non-vegetated land
8 Woody savannas Woody savannas Deciduous Needleleaf forest Urban
9 Savannas Savannas Non-vegetated  
10 Grasslands Grasslands Urban  
11 Permanent wetlands      
12 Croplands Croplands    
13 Urban and built-up Urban and built-up    
14 Cropland/Natural vegetation mosaic      
15 Snow and ice      
16 Barren or sparsely vegetated Barren or sparsely vegetated    
254 Unclassified Unclassified Unclassified Unclassified
255 Fill Value Fill Value Fill Value Fill Value

 

**Land Cover Types Description(Type 5 classification)

Class PFT (Type 5)
0 Water
1 Evergreen Needleleaf trees
2 Evergreen Broadleaf trees
3 Deciduous Needleleaf trees
4 Deciduous Broadleaf trees
5 Shrub
6 Grass
7 Cereal crops
8 Broad-leaf crops
9 Urban and built-up
10 Snow and ice
11 Barren or sparse vegetation
254 Unclassified
 255 Fill Value

 

 MODIS Land Cover Type QA Science Data Set

The Land_Cover_Type_QC SDS is specified as follows:
Data Field Name: UINT8 Land_Cover_Type_QC ("YDim", "XDim")
Description: Quality flags for Land Cover Type.
00-01 Mandatory QA
0 = processed, good quality
1 = processed, see other QA
2 = not processed due to cloud effects
3 = not processed due to other effects
02-03 Quarters since updated
0 = 0 quarter
1 = 1 quarter
2 = 2 quarters
3 = 3 quarters
04-07 Land-water mask
0 = Shallow ocean
1 = Land (Nothing else but land)
2 = Ocean coastlines and lake shores
3 = Shallow inland water
4 = Ephemeral water
5 = Deep inland water
6 = Moderate or continental ocean
7 = Deep ocean

 

Links

Data Set Characteristics

Temporal coverage (V051) 2001–2013
Earth-gridded tile area ~1200 x 1200 km (~10° x 10° at the equator)
Image dimensions 2400 x 2400 rows/columns
File size ~88 MB
Resolution 500 meters
Projection Sinusoidal
Data type 8-bit unsigned integer
Data format HDF-EOS
Science Data Set (SDS) layers 16

 

Data Policies

Please find the current MODIS-related Data policies on the MODIS Policies page at https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/modis_policies.

For information on how to cite and acknowledge LP DAAC data, please see our Citing Our Data page at https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/citing_our_data.

Data Access Tools

Data Pool: The Data Pool (On-line Archive) provides access to all MODIS products, and a rolling archive of ASTER level-1B products that cover the U.S. and its Territories.

Reverb: This tool provides access to a complete data record of all MODIS and ASTER products available from the LP DAAC.

The Data Access section of this Web site also provides access to these interfaces.

Contact Information

LP DAAC User Services
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)
47914 252nd Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57198-0001

Phone Number: 605-594-6116
Toll Free: 866-573-3222
866-LPE-DAAC
Fax: 605-594-6963

Email: lpdaac@usgs.gov
Web: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov
Contact Us: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/user_services/contact_us