MOD12Q1三级数据土地覆盖类型产品（Land Cover data）是根据一年的Terra和Aqua观测所得的数据经过处理，描述土地覆盖的类型。该土地覆盖数据集中包含了17个主要土地覆盖类型，根据国际地圈生物圈计划（IGBP），其中包括11个自然植被类型，3个土地开发和镶嵌的地类和3个非草木土地类型定义类。
MODIS Terra + Aqua三级土地覆盖类型年度全球500米产品MCD12Q1采用五种不同的土地覆盖分类方案，信息提取主要技术是监督决策树分类。下面是该数据中包含的五个数据集，五个分类方案如下：
土地覆盖分类1：IGBP的全球植被分类方案
土地覆盖分类2：美国马里兰大学（UMD格式）方案 土地覆盖分类3：基于MODIS叶面积指数/光合有效辐射方案 土地覆盖分类4：基于MODIS衍生净初级生产力（NPP）方案 土地覆盖分类5：植物功能型（肺功能）方案
MCD12Q1是HDF格式的，包含16个数据集
Science Data Set Land Cover Type 1 (IGBP)* Land Cover Type 2 (UMD)* Land Cover Type 3 (LAI/fPAR)* Land Cover Type 4 (NPP/BGC)* Land Cover Type 5 (PFT)** Land Cover Type 1 Assessment Land Cover Type 2 Assessment Land Cover Type 3 Assessment Land Cover Type 4 Assessment Land Cover Type 5 Assessment
Land Cover QC
Land Cover Type 1 Secondary Land Cover Type 1 Secondary %
Land Cover Property 1 Land Cover Property 2 Land Cover Property 3
Units Class # Class # Class # Class # Class # % Integer Not populated Not populated Not populated Not populated Concatenated Flags
Class # Not populated Not populated Not populated Not populated
Data-Type 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned 8-bit unsigned
Fill Value 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255
Valid Range 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254 0–254
前五个就是五个分类方案的分类图，接下来是分类评估图、其中只有type1有产品，还有质量控制数据集
各种分类数据中，数值代表类别如下表：
Class 0 1
IGBP (Type 1)
Water
Evergreen Needleleaf
forest
UMD (Type 2)
Water Evergreen Needleleaf forest
LAI/fPAR (Type 3)
Water Grasses/Cereal
crops
NPP (Type 4)
Water Evergreen Needleleaf vegetation
PFT (Type 5)
Water Evergreen Needleleaf trees
2 Evergreen Broadleaf
forest
Evergreen Broadleaf forest Deciduous Needleleaf forest
Shrubs Evergreen Broadleaf
vegetation
Evergreen Broadleaf trees Deciduous Needleleaf trees
3 Deciduous Needleleaf
forest
Broadleaf crops Deciduous Needleleaf vegetation
4 Deciduous Broadleaf
forest
Deciduous Broadleaf forest Mixed forest
Savanna Deciduous Broadleaf vegetation
Deciduous Broadleaf trees
Shrub
5 Mixed forest Evergreen Broadleaf
forest
Annual Broadleaf
vegetation Annual grass vegetation Non-vegetated land
6 Closed shrublands Closed shrublands Deciduous Broadleaf
forest
Grass
7 Open shrublands Open shrublands Evergreen Needleleaf forest
Cereal crops
8 Woody savannas Woody savannas Deciduous Needleleaf forest
Urban Broad-leaf crops
9 10 11
Savannas Grasslands Permanent wetlands
Savannas Grasslands
Non-vegetated
Urban
Urban and built-up Snow and ice Barren or sparse vegetation
12 13 14
Croplands Urban and built-up Cropland/Natural vegetation mosaic
Croplands Urban and built-up
15 16
Snow and ice Barren or sparsely
vegetated
Barren or sparsely
vegetated Unclassified Fill Value
254 255
Unclassified Fill Value
Unclassified Fill Value
Unclassified Fill Value
Unclassified Fill Value
（以上数据均出自https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/modis_products_table）