NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land product validation project, initiated prior to the launch of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra platform in late 1999, provides data, instrument, and information resources for the validation of products that quantify land surface characteristics from MODIS and other satellite sensors. Land products derived from MODIS and other moderate-resolution sensors include, among others, land cover, snow cover extent, surface temperature, leaf area index, fire occurrence, and vegetation productivity.