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Full catalog/MCD12Q2
MCD12Q2·v061·dataset

When plants green up and fade each year (Terra+Aqua, yearly, 500 m)

MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Dynamics Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. The yearly rhythm of plant life across the globe, marking when vegetation greens up in spring, reaches its peak, fades and goes dormant, plus how vigorous the growing season was.

How it's made. Derived from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites by tracking a greenness index through the year and pinpointing the timing of each growth stage, mapped at 500-meter resolution.

How & where you'd use it. Studying how growing seasons shift with climate change, comparing crop and forest cycles year to year, and supporting ecology, agriculture and carbon research.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › PLANT PHENOLOGYBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX (EVI)

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2001-01-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official 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. 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. 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](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=TerraAqua&as=61).

Get the data

mcd12q2_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD12Q2",
    version="061",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.