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Full catalog/modis-terraaqua-mcd12q1
modis-terraaqua-mcd12q1·dataset

Yearly global land cover and land use map, 500 m

MODIS Terra and Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly Global 500m
land ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. It classifies every 500-meter patch of land into types such as forest, grassland, cropland, water, or urban, updated once a year. It offers several different classification schemes so users can pick the one that suits their work.

How it's made. Produced by ESA Copernicus by combining observations from NASA's MODIS instruments on both the Terra and Aqua satellites and running supervised classification with extra refinement, as a yearly product.

How & where you'd use it. A foundational reference for environmental monitoring, tracking deforestation and urban growth, land-use planning, and as an input layer for many ecosystem and climate models.

What's measured

MODISTerraAquaNASASatelliteGlobalLand CoverLand UseClassification500mMCD12Q1

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2001-01-01 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The MODIS Terra and Aqua MCD12Q1 Version 6.1 product provides global land cover classification at yearly intervals. The dataset is generated using supervised classifications of combined MODIS Terra and Aqua reflectance data. Land cover types are derived from multiple classification schemes, including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), University of Maryland (UMD), Leaf Area Index (LAI), BIOME-Biogeochemical Cycles (BGC), and Plant Functional Types (PFT). The classifications are further refined through post-processing that incorporates prior knowledge and ancillary information. The product also includes additional land cover property layers based on the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Land Cover Classification System (LCCS). Each dataset file contains layers for Land Cover Types 1-5, Land Cover Properties 1-3, Land Cover Property Assessments 1-3, a Land Cover Quality Control (QC) layer, and a Land-Water Mask.

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-terraaqua-mcd12q1"],   # 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.