MCD12Q2 v061

MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Dynamics Yearly L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid


PI: Josh Gray, Damien Sulla-Menashe, and Mark Friedl

Description

The Terra and Aqua combined Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Cover Dynamics (MCD12Q2) Version 6.1 data product provides global land surface phenology metrics at yearly intervals from 2001 to 2021. The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 data product is derived from time series of the 2-band Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI2) calculated from MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR). Vegetation phenology metrics at 500 meter spatial resolution are identified for up to two detected growing cycles per year. For pixels with more than two valid vegetation cycles, the data represent the two cycles with the largest NBAR-EVI2 amplitudes.

Provided in each MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 Hierarchical Data Format 4 (HDF4) file are layers for the total number of vegetation cycles detected for the product year, the onset of greenness, greenup midpoint, maturity, peak greenness, senescence, greendown midpoint, dormancy, EVI2 minimum, EVI2 amplitude, integrated EVI2 over a vegetation cycle, as well as overall and phenology metric-specific quality information. SDS layers may be multi-dimensional with up to two valid vegetation cycles.

For areas where the NBAR-EVI2 values are missing due to cloud cover or other reasons, the data gaps are filled with good quality NBAR-EVI2 values from the year directly preceding or following the product year.

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Characteristics

Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions

  • The Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 - 2017.
  • A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).
  • The MCD12Q2 Version 6.1 product has an improved approach to snow filtering.
  • Processing was adjusted to generate products 6 months after the end of the calendar year.

Product Maturity

The accuracy of the MODIS Global Land Cover Dynamics product (MCD12Q2) is currently still being evaluated, and a validation statement for this product will be forthcoming once the evaluation is complete. Further details regarding MODIS land product validation for the MCD12 data products are available from the MODIS Land Team Validation site.

Collection and Granule

Collection

Characteristic Description
CollectionCombined MODIS
DOI10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q2.061
File Size~250 MB
Temporal ResolutionYearly
Temporal Extent2001-01-01 to 2021-12-31
Spatial ExtentGlobal
Coordinate SystemSinusoidal
DatumN/A
File FormatHDF-EOS
Geographic Dimensions1200 km x 1200 km

Granule

Characteristic Description
Number of Science Dataset (SDS) Layers13
Columns/Rows2400 x 2400
Pixel Size500 m

Layers / Variables

SDS Name Description Units Data Type Fill Value No Data Value Valid Range Scale Factor
NumCycles Total number of valid vegetation cycles with peak in product year Number 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 1 to 7 N/A
Greenup¹ Date when EVI2 first crossed 15% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
MidGreenup¹ Date when EVI2 first crossed 50% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
Peak¹ Date when EVI2 reached the segment maximum Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
Maturity¹ Date when EVI2 first crossed 90% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
Senescence¹ Date when EVI2 last crossed 90% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
MidGreendown¹ Date when EVI2 last crossed 50% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
Dormancy¹ Date when EVI2 last crossed 15% of the segment EVI2 amplitude Day 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 11138 to 32766 N/A
EVI_Minimum Segment minimum EVI2 value EVI2 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 0 to 10000 0.0001
EVI_Amplitude Segment maximum - minimum EVI2 EVI2 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 0 to 10000 0.0001
EVI_Area Sum of daily interpolated EVI2 from Greenup to Dormancy EVI2 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 0 to 3700 0.1
QA_Overall QA code for entire segment Class 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 0 to 3 N/A
QA_Detailed Bit-packed, SDS-specific QA codes Bit Field 16-bit signed integer 32767 N/A 0 to 16383 N/A

¹Phenometric-specific units are days since January 1, 1970.

QA Overall Class Values

Value Description
0 Best
1 Good
2 Fair
3 Poor

Product Quality

Quality information is provided in Table 2 of the User Guide.

The Quality Control (QC) layer is stored in an efficient bit-encoded manner. The unpack_sds_bits executable from the LDOPE Tools is available to the user community to help parse and interpret the quality layer.

Quality assurance information should be considered when determining the usability of data for a particular science application. The ArcGIS MODIS-VIIRS Python Toolbox contains tools capable of decoding quality data layers while producing thematic quality raster files for each quality attribute.

Known Issues

Known issues are described in Section 3.2 of the User Guide.

For complete information about known issues please refer to the MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website.


About the image

Combined MODIS Land Cover Dynamics EVI Amplitude data from the MCD12Q2 product over Great Lakes Region, United States, 2020.

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Documentation

User Guide
Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD)

Using the Data

Access Data

Citation

DOI: 10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q2.061