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Full catalog/MOD13A1
MOD13A1·v061·dataset

How green the land is (Terra, 16-day, 500 m)

MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. How green and lush the land surface is, summarized as vegetation indices (NDVI and EVI) at 500-meter detail every 16 days, plus the underlying red, near-infrared, blue, and mid-infrared reflectance bands.

How it's made. Produced from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra satellite by selecting the clearest, best view of each pixel across each 16-day period.

How & where you'd use it. Widely used to track crop and vegetation health, growing seasons, drought, and deforestation, with finer detail than the 1-kilometer version.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEXBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI)BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION INDEX › ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX (EVI)

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-18 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (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 MOD13A1 Version 6.1 product provides Vegetation Index (VI) values at a per pixel basis at 500 meter (m) spatial resolution. There are two primary vegetation layers. The first is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is referred to as the continuity index to the existing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) derived NDVI. The second vegetation layer is the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), which has improved sensitivity over high biomass regions. The algorithm for this product chooses the best available pixel value from all the acquisitions from the 16 day period. The criteria used is low clouds, low view angle, and the highest NDVI/EVI value. Provided along with the vegetation layers and two quality assurance (QA) layers are reflectance bands 1 (red), 2 (near-infrared), 3 (blue), and 7 (mid-infrared), as well as four observation layers. Known Issues * 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=Terra&as=61).

Get the data

mod13a1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD13A1",
    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.