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modis-terra-mod17a2h·dataset

Carbon captured by plants every 8 days (Terra)

MODIS Terra Gross Primary Productivity 8-Day L4 Global 500m
biosphere ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. It measures gross primary productivity, the amount of carbon dioxide green plants take in through photosynthesis, summed over 8 days at 500-meter detail. It also gives net photosynthesis, which subtracts the energy plants spend to maintain themselves.

How it's made. Created by ESA Copernicus from NASA's MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite using a light-use-efficiency model, delivered as a Level-4 product.

How & where you'd use it. Supports carbon-cycle and climate research and helps track how forests, grasslands, and crops respond to seasons, drought, and disturbance.

What's measured

MODISTerraNASASatelliteGlobalVegetationGPPGross Primary ProductivityCarbon500mMOD17A2H

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-01-01 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The MODIS Terra MOD17A2H Version 6.1 product provides an 8-day cumulative composite of Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) at 500 m spatial resolution. The dataset is based on the radiation use efficiency concept and can be used as input for models analyzing terrestrial energy balance, carbon and water cycles, and vegetation biogeochemistry. In addition to GPP, the product includes Net Photosynthesis (PSN), calculated as GPP minus Maintenance Respiration (MR). The dataset also contains a PSN Quality Control (QC) layer that provides quality information for both the GPP and PSN variables.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["modis-terra-mod17a2h"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.