Project -- MODIS
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MOD17 Vegetation Production, NPP MOD16 Evapotranspiration & Surface Resistance, Land Science Team
Principal Investigator: Steven W. Running
Faculty and Research Associates: Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Peter E. Thornton, Kenlo Nishida, Maosheng Zhao, Qiaozhen Mu
The University of Montana is the only Forestry School in the country with a member on the EOS science team. Our responsibility is to provide computer programs to use this new satellite data to calculate global photosynthesis and evapotranspiration for all terrestrial biomes. We envision the EOS satellite to provide a dramatic improvement in our ability to accurately monitor global ecological conditions. Large scale climate shifts, deforestation, desertification, pollution damage, crop conditions, glacial retreats, flooding, wildfires and urbanization are examples of the types of earth system monitoring planned. Currently, as we work on these software products, we are using Montana as a testbed for this advanced satellite technology.
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Funding: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The NASA Earth Observing System is a $7.3 billion program planning satellite-based earth monitoring for 15 years, and is the heart of global change science for the United States. The central sensor on board the Terra Satellite Platform is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS picture). Terra was successfully launched on December 16, 1999, and a second MODIS-based satellite, Aqua, was launched May 4, 2002.
The University of Montana is the only Forestry School in the country with a member on the EOS science team. Our responsibility is to provide computer programs to use this new satellite data to calculate global photosynthesis and evapotranspiration for all terrestrial biomes. We envision the EOS satellite to provide a dramatic improvement in our ability to accurately monitor global ecological conditions. Large scale climate shifts, deforestation, desertification, pollution damage, crop conditions, glacial retreats, flooding, wildfires and urbanization are examples of the types of earth system monitoring planned. Currently, as we work on these software products, we are using Montana as a testbed for this advanced satellite technology.
Link to:
Funding: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
More Information
NTSG Image Gallery
MOD17A2 (GPP) Regional, Continental and Global Mosaics
NTSG MODIS Data Holdings
FTP Acccess to Standard and Enhanced MODIS data granules (HDF-EOS Tiles)- MOD17 - Global GPP and NPP User's Guide
Includes information about Collection 4 data (1.43MB PDF) 
MODIS Vegetation Workshop II
Missoula, Montana - August 2004
MODIS Vegetation Workshop
Missoula, Montana - July 2002
EOS Data Gateway (Land Processing DAAC)
Data Access, Product and Data Center Alerts & Status
NTSG MODIS QA Plan
- NTSG MODIS QA Plan Version 2.1 (PDF)
- MODLAND-SDST Mtg Sep 1998: Anticipated QA Problems (PDF)
- MODLAND-SDST Mtg Sep 1998 : QA Slides (PDF)
University of Montana SCF At-Launch Algorithm ATBD Documents
NTSG MODIS Algorithms
The University of Montana NTSG lab is under contract to NASA as a Science Compute Facility (SCF) on the Land Science team, tasked with developing two at-launch MODIS algorithms, and two post-launch algorithms. The at-launch algorithms under developement include:
- MOD15 Fractional Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) algorithm. This Level 4 product will be retrieved at 500m spatial resolution and composited to 1 KM on a 8 day basis. LAI defines an important structural property of a plant canopy which is the equivalent layers of leaves relative to a unit ground area. FPAR measures the proportion of available radiation in the photosynthetically active wavelengths (0.4 to 0.7 micro meters) that a canopy absorbs.
- MOD16 Evapotranspiration algorithm. This Level 4 product will be retrieved at 1000m spatial resolution and composited to 1 KM on a 8 day basis. In this product, evapotranspiration is described as a fractional value called "Evaporation fraction (EF)," which is a fraction of latent heat energy to available energy. This value represents not only the "dryness" of the land surface but also the characteristics of the land surface in terms of energy partitioning, which has a large influence on the local and regional climate and environment.
- MOD17 Photosynthesis (PSN) and Net Primary Productivity (NPP) algorithm. These vegetation production products are designed to provide an accurate regular measure of the growth of the terrestrial vegetation. Production is determined by first computing a daily net photosynthesis value which is then composited over a 8 day interval of observations over a year, to produce a Net Primary Productivity (NPP) measure.
MODIS Land Product Flowcharts
Links to Other Sites
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