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Full catalog/MOD13Q1
MOD13Q1·v061·dataset

How green the vegetation is, NDVI (Terra, 250 m)

MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 250m SIN Grid V061
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. How green and healthy vegetation looks, summarized as two greenness scores (NDVI and EVI) that rise where plants are dense and lush. It also carries the underlying red, infrared, and blue color bands.

How it's made. Built every 16 days from the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite at 250-meter resolution, picking the clearest, best-quality pixel from the period.

How & where you'd use it. Widely used to monitor crops and forests, track droughts and growing seasons, and watch how landscapes green up and brown down through the year.

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 Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Vegetation Indices (MOD13Q1) Version 6.1 data are generated every 16 days at 250 meter (m) spatial resolution as a Level 3 product. The MOD13Q1 product provides 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 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. Along with the vegetation layers and the two quality layers, the HDF file will have MODIS 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

mod13q1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MOD13Q1",
    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.