MODIS Leaf Area Index

FAIR Overall Score

Abstract

The MCD15A3H Version 6.1 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Level 4 Leaf Area Index (LAI) product is a 4-day composite data set with 500 meter pixel size. The algorithm chooses the best pixel available from all the acquisitions of both MODIS sensors located on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites from within the 4-day period. LAI is defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground area in broadleaf canopies and as one-half the total needle surface area per unit ground area in coniferous canopies.

Keywords

MODIS, terra, aqua, LAI

Legal constraints

CC-BY-4.0

FAIR Overall Score: 77%

Principle	Score	Earned	Level
Findable	57%	4 of 7	moderate
Accessible	100%	7 of 7	advanced
Interoperable	67%	4 of 6	moderate
Reusable	83%	5 of 6	moderate

Assessed 2026-07-22 (metrics 0.8)

Evaluated by F-UJI web service: Anusuriya Devaraju, & Robert Huber. (2020). F-UJI - An Automated FAIR Data Assessment Tool. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6361400

Snippet code

##### ----Explore and download STAC data with Python ----- #####

from pystac_client import Client

## Read the example catalog
URL = 'https://stac.eurac.edu/'
catalog = Client.open(URL)

## List the Collections in the given Catalog
stac_collections = list(catalog.get_collections())
print(f"Number of collections: {len(stac_collections)}")

## Print collection IDs
print("Collections IDs:")
for collection in stac_collections:
    print(f"- {collection.id}")
print("-------------------------")

## Retrieve a specific collection
collection = catalog.get_collection("ID_OfTheCollection")

## Search for items in the collection
collection_items = list(catalog.search(collections=['ID_OfTheCollection'], max_items=10).items())
print(collection_items)

## Retrieve a list of the first 10 items belonging to a specific collection
item = collection.get_item("NameOfTheItem")
#print(list(item.assets.items())[0:10])

##Print the band name and the href of a specific item retrieved from the previous list
print(item.assets["ID_OfTheCollection"].title)
print(item.assets["ID_OfTheCollection"].href)

## Print Item’s assets through the assets attribute, which is a dictionary
for asset_key in item.assets:
    asset = item.assets[asset_key]
    print("{}: {} ({})".format(asset_key, asset.href, asset.media_type))

## ------------- DONWLOAD COG files from a specific collection ------- ####
from pystac_client import Client
import requests

## Read the example catalog
URL = 'https://stac.eurac.edu/'
catalog = Client.open(URL)

## List the Collections in the given Catalog
stac_collections = list(catalog.get_collections())
# print(f"Number of collections: {len(stac_collections)}")

## Print collection IDs
print("Collections IDs:")
for collection in stac_collections:
	print(f"- {collection.id}")
print("-------------------------")

## Retrieve a specific collection
collection = catalog.get_collection("ID_OfTheCollection")

## Search for items in the collection
collection_items = list(catalog.search(collections=['ID_OfTheCollection'], max_items=10).items())
print(collection_items)

url_basepath = "https://eurac-eo.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/"
collection_url = url_basepath + "ID_OfTheCollection" + "/"
print(collection_url)
for item_id in collection_items:
	# item = item.assets[asset_key]
	print(item_id.id)
	cog_file = str(item_id.id + '.tif')
	url = collection_url + cog_file
	response = requests.get(url)
	with open(cog_file, "wb") as f:
		f.write(response.content)