MODIS U.S. 16 day Vegetation Index Product

Description

The GLCF U.S. VI product is produced every 16 days from daily 250m MODIS red and near infrared surface reflectance data. Important characteristics of this data set:

  • Data products provided are the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Band 1 (red), Band 2 (near infrared) and cloud data when available.
  • Composite is based on data quality and the maximum NDVI for the compositing period.
  • Full resolution and browse products for the Conterminous United States and southern Canada.
  • Browse products are available as non-georeferenced JPEG images; full resolution data is available as a georeferenced TIFF image.
  • The compositing procedure has been designed to maximize the spatial resolution of the data product. The data is output with 250m pixels.
  • Projection for all data files is Alber's Conic Equal Area
  • A text file providing basic geolocation and data information is available.

NDVI is a ratio of the red and near infrared reflectance. NDVI is useful for assessing the health and density of vegetation. NDVI values near 0 indicate very sparse vegetation. Dense vegetation is indicated by NDVI values approaching 1. By using a time-series of NDVI observations, one can examine the dynamics of the growing season and monitor phenomena such as drought. A full complement of data has been completed from the beginning of Terra satellite operation to the present and is available for download in browse and 250m resolution.

Please visit the ESDI data access page for further information and to download the data. A complete description of the compositing procedure as well as a general description of this product is available in the Product Guide. Any questions not covered in either the description or the Product Guide can be addressed to modis@geog.umd.edu.

This product is updated on a monthly basis.