• Phased production for improved temporal frequency (produced every 8 days using the last 16-days of acquisitions, starting with day 009 of every year)
• Replaced NDVI_QA and EVI_QA with one VI_QA Science Data Set and added a general QA overview band called “Pixel Reliability.”
• Reduced file volume by using internal compression

Product Description

Global MODIS vegetation indices are designed to provide consistent spatial and temporal comparisons of vegetation conditions. Blue, red, and near-infrared reflectances, centered at 469-nanometers, 645-nanometers, and 858-nanometers, respectively, are used to determine the MODIS daily vegetation indices.

The MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) complements NOAA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) NDVI products and provides continuity for time series historical applications.  MODIS also includes a new Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) that minimizes canopy background variations and maintains sensitivity over dense vegetation conditions.  The EVI also uses the blue band to remove residual atmosphere contamination caused by smoke and sub-pixel thin cloud clouds.  The MODIS NDVI and EVI products are computed from atmospherically corrected bi-directional surface reflectances that have been masked for water, clouds, heavy aerosols, and cloud shadows.

Global MYD13A2 data are provided every 16 days at 1-kilometer spatial resolution as a gridded level-3 product in the Sinusoidal projection. VI production is phased between Terra and Aqua acquisitions, with Terra beginning on Day 001 and Aqua beginning on Day 008.

Vegetation indices are used for global monitoring of vegetation conditions and are used in products displaying land cover and land cover changes. These data may be used as input for modeling global biogeochemical and hydrologic processes and global and regional climate. These data also may be used for characterizing land surface biophysical properties and processes, including primary production and land cover conversion.

Version-5 MODIS/Aqua Vegetation Indices products are Validated Stage 2, meaning that accuracy has been assessed over a widely distributed set of locations and time periods via several ground-truth and validation efforts.  Although there may be later improved versions, these data are ready for use in scientific publications.