Earth Science

Terra

15,347 tracked publications and 577,899 citations from 2000–2026. Launched 1999. Life-cycle cost: $3.8B in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window March 1, 2000 to January 1, 2024: 13,285 publications, 763 top-10% credit.

Orbiter · h-index 247 · 1,126 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 2006

Lifetime

Scope Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the prime mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. Methods

Key measures

Active Mission Window · papers March 1, 2000 to January 1, 2024
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods13,285
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods151,514
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods11
Median citations per publicationMedian citations: the middle paper’s citation count in the selected scope; half the papers have more, half fewer. A single blockbuster sways it less than the mean. Methods7
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods857 (6.5%)
Top-10% creditTop 10%: among the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, ranked against papers published around the same time. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods763 · 20% of division
Top-1% creditTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window. Not adjusted for publication year. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods74 · 19% of division
Lifetime indices · every tracked publication to date, in any scope
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods247
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods420
m-index, as of October 4, 2026m-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes, so it belongs to the date shown; it also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods9.1
toritori (total research impact, from ADS): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Methods3,265
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Methods2,040

Tracked publications

  1. Overview of the radiometric and biophysical performance of the MODIS vegetation indices

    Huete, A., 2002, RSEnv

    7,003 citations

  2. FLUXNET: A New Tool to Study the Temporal and Spatial Variability of Ecosystem-Scale Carbon Dioxide, Water Vapor, and Energy Flux Densities.

    Baldocchi, Dennis, 2001, BAMS

    2,809 citations

  3. The MODIS Aerosol Algorithm, Products, and Validation.

    Remer, L. A., 2005, JAtS

    2,311 citations

  4. Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997-2009)

    van der Werf, G. R., 2010, ACP

    2,090 citations

  5. Global land cover mapping from MODIS: algorithms and early results

    Friedl, M. A., 2002, RSEnv

    2,020 citations

  6. Monitoring vegetation phenology using MODIS

    Zhang, Xiaoyang, 2003, RSEnv

    1,890 citations

  7. First operational BRDF, albedo nadir reflectance products from MODIS

    Schaaf, Crystal B., 2002, RSEnv

    1,879 citations

  8. A simple method for reconstructing a high-quality NDVI time-series data set based on the Savitzky-Golay filter

    Chen, Jin, 2004, RSEnv

    1,705 citations

  9. The Collection 6 MODIS aerosol products over land and ocean

    Levy, R. C., 2013, AMT

    1,566 citations

  10. Change detection techniques

    Lu, D., 2004, IJRS

    1,522 citations

  11. Development of a two-band enhanced vegetation index without a blue band

    Jiang, Zhangyan, 2008, RSEnv

    1,517 citations

  12. Global products of vegetation leaf area and fraction absorbed PAR from year one of MODIS data

    Myneni, R. B., 2002, RSEnv

    1,490 citations

  13. On the Blending of the Landsat and MODIS Surface Reflectance: Predicting Daily Landsat Surface Reflectance

    Gao, Feng, 2006, ITGRS

    1,449 citations

  14. The MODIS Cloud Products: Algorithms and Examples From Terra

    Platnick, Steven, 2003, ITGRS

    1,417 citations

  15. A Continuous Satellite-Derived Measure of Global Terrestrial Primary Production

    Running, Steven W., 2004, BiSci

    1,350 citations

  16. Development of a global evapotranspiration algorithm based on MODIS and global meteorology data

    Mu, Qiaozhen, 2007, RSEnv

    1,307 citations

  17. Detecting trend and seasonal changes in satellite image time series

    Verbesselt, Jan, 2010, RSEnv

    1,298 citations

  18. A Landsat Surface Reflectance Dataset for North America, 1990─2000

    Masek, Jeffrey G., 2006, IGRSL

    1,287 citations

  19. Preliminary analysis of the performance of the Landsat 8/OLI land surface reflectance product

    Vermote, Eric, 2016, RSEnv

    1,255 citations

  20. An Enhanced Contextual Fire Detection Algorithm for MODIS

    Giglio, Louis, 2003, RSEnv

    1,231 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming Terra in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces. SciX is ADS’s current interface.

(((abs:Terra AND abs:(ASTER OR CERES OR MODIS OR MISR OR MOPITT)) OR =abs:"Terra Earth-Observing" OR =abs:"Terra Earth Observing" OR =abs:"Terra spacecraft" OR =abs:"Terra satellite" OR =abs:"Terra satellites" OR =abs:"Terra and Aqua" OR =abs:"Aqua and Terra" OR (abs:"EOS-AM1" AND abs:(Terra OR satellite OR MODIS OR ASTER OR MISR OR MOPITT OR CERES)) OR =abs:"EOS AM-1" OR =abs:"Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere" OR =abs:"Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere" OR =abs:"Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer" OR =abs:"Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer" OR =abs:"Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer" OR (abs:MOPITT AND abs:(carbon OR monoxide OR troposphere OR pollution)) OR (abs:MISR AND abs:(aerosol OR cloud OR radiance OR satellite OR reflectance OR smoke)) OR (abs:ASTER AND abs:(satellite OR radiometer OR thermal OR elevation OR remote)) OR ((=abs:"Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer" OR =abs:"Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System") AND abs:Terra) OR ((=abs:"Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer" OR =abs:"Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System") AND NOT abs:Aqua))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2000-03 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "AIASJ" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NewSc" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (11)

  1. 2004RvBCS..28..393A Uses the Portuguese word 'terra' (land) and Landsat images; not the Terra mission. Decision 🤖
  2. Detection of diurnal variation in orchard canopy water content using MODIS/ASTER airborne simulator (MASTER) data Uses MASTER, an airborne simulator of MODIS and ASTER; no Terra data. Decision 🤖
  3. 2021FrRAI...850885N Small-body spacecraft autonomy study; does not refer to the Terra mission. Decision 🤖
  4. 2023RemS...15.4183L Uses 'MISR' for multi-image super-resolution; not Terra's MISR instrument. Decision 🤖
  5. The CloudSat radar-lidar geometrical profile product (RL-GeoProf): Updates, improvements, and selected results Compares CloudSat and CALIPSO with Aqua's MODIS cloud mask; not Terra. Decision 🤖
  6. 2005EcoAp..15.1223P Uses SPOT and Radarsat imagery; 'Terra' appears only in SPOT's French name. Decision 🤖
  7. Estimation of Shortwave Direct Radiative Forcing of Biomass-Burning Aerosols Using New Angular Models. Uses CERES data from the TRMM satellite; not Terra. Decision 🤖
  8. 2023LSSR...36..135V About transporting plants in space; 'terraforming' is not the Terra mission. Decision 🤖
  9. 2016GMD.....9.3027W Refers to the TERRA_URB land-surface model; not the Terra mission. Decision 🤖
  10. 2025IJGW...37..247S Uses the TerraClimate dataset and Sentinel-5P; not the Terra mission. Decision 🤖
  11. Multi-image super-resolution in remote sensing: A review of artificial intelligence techniques and challenges Uses 'MISR' for multi-image super-resolution; not Terra's MISR instrument. Decision 🤖