Programmatic interface to the 'MODIS Land Products Subsets' web services. Allows for easy downloads of 'MODIS' time series directly to your R workspace or your computer. When using the package please cite the manuscript as referenced below.
To install the current stable release use a CRAN repository:
install.packages("MODISTools")
library("MODISTools")
To install the development releases of the package run the following commands:
if(!require(devtools)){install.package("devtools")}
devtools::install_github("khufkens/MODISTools")
library("MODISTools")
Vignettes are not rendered by default, if you want to include additional documentation please use:
if(!require(devtools)){install.package("devtools")}
devtools::install_github("khufkens/MODISTools", build_vignettes = TRUE)
library("MODISTools")
To extract a time series of modis data for a given location and its direct environment use the mt_subset() function.
detailed parameter description (click to expand)
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
product | a MODIS product |
band | a MODIS product band (if NULL all bands are downloaded) |
lat | latitude of the site |
lon | longitude of the site |
start | start year of the time series (data start in 1980) |
end | end year of the time series (current year - 2 years, use force = TRUE to override) |
internal | logical, TRUE or FALSE, if true data is imported into R workspace otherwise it is downloaded into the current working directory |
out_dir | path where to store the data when not used internally, defaults to tempdir() |
km_lr | force "out of temporal range" downloads (integer) |
km_ab | suppress the verbose output (integer) |
site_name | a site identifier |
site_id | a site_id for predefined locations (not required) |
# load the library
library(MODISTools)
# download data
subset <- mt_subset(product = "MOD11A2",
lat = 40,
lon = -110,
band = "LST_Day_1km",
start = "2004-01-01",
end = "2004-02-01",
km_lr = 1,
km_ab = 1,
site_name = "testsite",
internal = TRUE)
print(str(subset))
#> List of 2
#> $ header:List of 15
#> ..$ xllcorner: chr "-9370962.97"
#> ..$ yllcorner: chr "4446875.49"
#> ..$ cellsize : chr "926.625433055834"
#> ..$ nrows : int 3
#> ..$ ncols : int 3
#> ..$ band : chr "LST_Day_1km"
#> ..$ units : chr "Kelvin"
#> ..$ scale : chr "0.02"
#> ..$ latitude : num 40
#> ..$ longitude: num -110
#> ..$ site : chr "testsite"
#> ..$ product : chr "MOD11A2"
#> ..$ start : chr "2004-01-01"
#> ..$ end : chr "2004-02-01"
#> ..$ complete : logi TRUE
#> $ data :'data.frame': 36 obs. of 7 variables:
#> ..$ modis_date : chr [1:36] "A2004001" "A2004009" "A2004017" "A2004025" ...
#> ..$ calendar_date: chr [1:36] "2004-01-01" "2004-01-09" "2004-01-17" "2004-01-25" ...
#> ..$ band : chr [1:36] "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" ...
#> ..$ tile : chr [1:36] "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05" ...
#> ..$ proc_date : chr [1:36] "2015212185706" "2015212201022" "2015212213103" "2015213005429" ...
#> ..$ pixel : chr [1:36] "1" "1" "1" "1" ...
#> ..$ data : int [1:36] 13135 13120 13350 13354 13123 13100 13324 13331 13098 13069 ...
#> - attr(*, "class")= chr "MODISTools"
#> NULL
The output format is a nested list with the true data provided as a tidy data frame, as shown above. When witten to a csv, when the parameter 'internal' is set to FALSE, the same information is retained. Data can be read back into the same format with the included mt_read() function (see below).
Note that when a a region is defined using km_lr and km_ab multiple pixels might be returned. These are indexed using the 'pixel' column in the data frame containing the time series data. The remote sensing values are listed in the 'data' column. When no band is specified all bands of a given product are returned, be mindful of the fact that different bands might require different multipliers to represent their true values.
To list all available products, bands for particular products and temporal coverage see function descriptions below.
Below an example is provided on how to batch download data for a data frame of given site names and locations (lat / lon).
# create data frame with a site_name, lat and lon column
# holding the respective names of sites and their location
df <- data.frame("site_name" = paste("test",1:2))
df$lat <- 40
df$lon <- -110
# test batch download
subsets <- mt_batch_subset(df = df,
product = "MOD11A2",
band = "LST_Day_1km",
internal = TRUE,
start = "2004-01-01",
end = "2004-02-01")
print(str(subsets))
#> List of 2
#> $ test 1:List of 2
#> ..$ header:List of 15
#> .. ..$ xllcorner: chr "-9370036.39"
#> .. ..$ yllcorner: chr "4447802.08"
#> .. ..$ cellsize : chr "926.625433055834"
#> .. ..$ nrows : int 1
#> .. ..$ ncols : int 1
#> .. ..$ band : chr "LST_Day_1km"
#> .. ..$ units : chr "Kelvin"
#> .. ..$ scale : chr "0.02"
#> .. ..$ latitude : num 40
#> .. ..$ longitude: num -110
#> .. ..$ site : chr "test 1"
#> .. ..$ product : chr "MOD11A2"
#> .. ..$ start : chr "2004-01-01"
#> .. ..$ end : chr "2004-02-01"
#> .. ..$ complete : logi TRUE
#> ..$ data :'data.frame': 4 obs. of 7 variables:
#> .. ..$ modis_date : chr [1:4] "A2004001" "A2004009" "A2004017" "A2004025"
#> .. ..$ calendar_date: chr [1:4] "2004-01-01" "2004-01-09" "2004-01-17" "2004-01-25"
#> .. ..$ band : chr [1:4] "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km"
#> .. ..$ tile : chr [1:4] "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05"
#> .. ..$ proc_date : chr [1:4] "2015212185706" "2015212201022" "2015212213103" "2015213005429"
#> .. ..$ pixel : chr [1:4] "1" "1" "1" "1"
#> .. ..$ data : int [1:4] 13098 13062 13297 13323
#> ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "MODISTools"
#> $ test 2:List of 2
#> ..$ header:List of 15
#> .. ..$ xllcorner: chr "-9370036.39"
#> .. ..$ yllcorner: chr "4447802.08"
#> .. ..$ cellsize : chr "926.625433055834"
#> .. ..$ nrows : int 1
#> .. ..$ ncols : int 1
#> .. ..$ band : chr "LST_Day_1km"
#> .. ..$ units : chr "Kelvin"
#> .. ..$ scale : chr "0.02"
#> .. ..$ latitude : num 40
#> .. ..$ longitude: num -110
#> .. ..$ site : chr "test 2"
#> .. ..$ product : chr "MOD11A2"
#> .. ..$ start : chr "2004-01-01"
#> .. ..$ end : chr "2004-02-01"
#> .. ..$ complete : logi TRUE
#> ..$ data :'data.frame': 4 obs. of 7 variables:
#> .. ..$ modis_date : chr [1:4] "A2004001" "A2004009" "A2004017" "A2004025"
#> .. ..$ calendar_date: chr [1:4] "2004-01-01" "2004-01-09" "2004-01-17" "2004-01-25"
#> .. ..$ band : chr [1:4] "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km" "LST_Day_1km"
#> .. ..$ tile : chr [1:4] "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05" "h09v05"
#> .. ..$ proc_date : chr [1:4] "2015212185706" "2015212201022" "2015212213103" "2015213005429"
#> .. ..$ pixel : chr [1:4] "1" "1" "1" "1"
#> .. ..$ data : int [1:4] 13098 13062 13297 13323
#> ..- attr(*, "class")= chr "MODISTools"
#> NULL
To list all available products use the mt_products() function.
products <- mt_products()
head(products)
#> product
#> 1 MCD12Q1
#> 2 MCD15A2H
#> 3 MCD15A3H
#> 4 MOD09A1
#> 5 MOD11A2
#> 6 MOD13Q1
#> description
#> 1 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type (LC) Yearly L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid
#> 2 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Leaf Area Index/FPAR (LAI/FPAR) 8-Day L4 Global 500 m SIN Grid
#> 3 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Leaf Area Index/FPAR (LAI/FPAR) 4-Day L4 Global 500 m SIN Grid
#> 4 MODIS/Terra Surface Reflectance (SREF) 8-Day L3 Global 500m SIN Grid
#> 5 MODIS/Terra Land Surface Temperature and Emissivity (LST) 8-Day L3 Global 1 km SIN Grid
#> 6 MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices (NDVI/EVI) 16-Day L3 Global 250m SIN Grid
#> frequency resolution_meters
#> 1 Yearly 500
#> 2 8-Day 500
#> 3 4-Day 500
#> 4 8-Day 500
#> 5 8-Day 1000
#> 6 16-Day 250
To list all available bands for a given product use the mt_bands() function.
bands <- mt_bands(product = "MOD11A2")
head(bands)
#> band description units valid_range
#> 1 Day_view_angl View zenith angle of day observation degree 0 to 130
#> 2 Emis_32 Band 32 emissivity <NA> 1 to 255
#> 3 Emis_31 Band 31 emissivity <NA> 1 to 255
#> 4 QC_Night Nighttime LST Quality indicators <NA> 0 to 255
#> 5 Day_view_time Local time of day observation hrs 0 to 240
#> 6 LST_Day_1km Daytime Land Surface Temperature Kelvin 7500 to 65535
#> fill_value
#> 1 255
#> 2 0
#> 3 0
#> 4 <NA>
#> 5 255
#> 6 0
To list all available dates (temporal coverage) for a given product and location use the mt_dates() function.
dates <- mt_dates(product = "MOD11A2", lat = 42, lon = -110)
head(dates)
#> modis_date calendar_date
#> 1 A2000049 2000-02-18
#> 2 A2000057 2000-02-26
#> 3 A2000065 2000-03-05
#> 4 A2000073 2000-03-13
#> 5 A2000081 2000-03-21
#> 6 A2000089 2000-03-29
Data can be written to file using the mt_write() function which uses the following file format:
[site_name]_[product]_[start]_[end].csv
The data can be read back into the original nested structed using mt_read().
# write the above file to disk
mt_write(df = subset,
out_dir = tempdir())
# read the data back in
subset_disk <- mt_read(paste0(tempdir(),
"/testsite_MOD11A2_2004-01-01_2004-02-01.csv"))
# compare original to read from disk
identical(subset, subset_disk)
#> [1] TRUE
Tuck et al. (2014). MODISTools - downloading and processing MODIS remotely sensed data in R Ecology & Evolution, 4(24), 4658 - 4668.
Original development was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; grants NE/K500811/1 and NE/J011193/1), and the Hans Rausing Scholarship. Refactoring was supported through the Belgian Science Policy office COBECORE project (BELSPO; grant BR/175/A3/COBECORE).