There is growing interest in employing large-scale long-term remote sensing Leaf Area Index (LAI) products to evaluate responses and feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystem dynamics to climate change. However, the multiple publicly-available LAI products are generally derived from different satellites, produced using different algorithms and global land cover classifications, developed at different spatial and temporal resolutions, and released with different data gaps and map projections. Understanding and resolution of the inter-LAI dataset differences is critical if these datasets are to be used to quantify the response of vegetation phenology and variability to climate, to force biogeophysical land models and to evaluate biogeochemical land models. We will demonstrate progress in the homogenization and intercomparison of these different satellite datasets at half-degree spatial resolution for the period between 1982 and 2011. Moreover, we will illustrate some applications of these synthesized LAI products onto the evaluation of latest version of the Community Land Model.