These data are a copy of MODIS data from the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System (LAADS) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). The copy is potentially only a subset. Below is the description from https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions-and-measurements/products/MCD12Q1

The MODIS Land Cover Type product contains multiple classification schemes, which describe land cover properties derived from observations spanning a year's input of Terra and Aqua data. The primary land cover scheme identifies 17 land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which includes 11 natural vegetation classes, 3 developed and mosiacked land classes, and three non-vegetated land classes.

The MODIS Terra + Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500 m SIN Grid product incorporates five different land cover classification schemes, derived through a supervised decision-tree classification method:

Land Cover Type 1: IGBP global vegetation classification schemeLand Cover Type 2: University of Maryland (UMD) schemeLand Cover Type 3: MODIS-derived LAI/fPAR schemeLand Cover Type 4: MODIS-derived Net Primary Production (NPP) schemeLand Cover Type 5: Plant Functional Type (PFT) scheme

Additional layers include a Land Cover Type Assessment SDS, a Land Cover Percent SDS, and a Land Cover Quality Control SDS.

Collection 5.1 Land Cover Type products are produced with revised training data and certain algorithm refinements. For further details, please consult the following paper:

Friedl, M. A., Sulla-Menashe, D., Tan, B., Schneider, A., Ramankutty, N., Sibley, A., andHuang, X. (2010). MODIS Collection 5 global land cover: Algorithm refinements and characterization of new datasets. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114, 168-182.

Shortname: MCD12Q1 , Platform: Combined Aqua Terra , Instrument: MODIS , Processing Level: Level-3 , Spatial Resolution: 500 m , Temporal Resolution: annual , ArchiveSets: 6 , Collection: MODIS Collection 6 (ArchiveSet 6) , PGE Number: PGE41 , File Naming Convention: MCD12Q1.AYYYYDDD.hHHvVV.CCC.YYYYDDDHHMMSS.hdf AAYYYYDDD = Acquisition Year and Day of Year hHH = Horizontal tile number (0-35) vVV = Vertical tile number (0-17) CCC = Collection number YYYYDDDHHMMSS = Production Date and Time , Citation: Mark Friedl, Damien Sulla-Menashe - Boston University and MODAPS SIPS - NASA. (2015). MCD12Q1 MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid. NASA LP DAAC. http://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q1.006 , Keywords: Climate Change, Climate Modeling, Land Cover