MODIS Daily Albedo Model at 500m Resolution

MODIS MCD43A3 Version 6.1 Albedo Model dataset provides daily black-sky and white-sky albedo estimates at 500-meter resolution. It is produced by NASA's LPCLOUD using 16 days of data from the Terra and Aqua satellites, temporally weighted to the ninth day. The dataset includes albedo for spectral bands 1-7 and broad bands, along with simplified quality layers.

Use Cases

• Modeling surface energy balance using black-sky albedo (directional hemispherical reflectance) and white-sky albedo (bihemispherical reflectance) columns.
• Monitoring seasonal snow and ice cover changes via albedo values in the visible and shortwave bands.
• Assessing land surface anisotropy and BRDF effects using the underlying model and quality flags.
• Validating climate models by comparing simulated surface reflectance with MODIS bands 1-7 albedo data.
• Studying urbanization or deforestation impacts on local climate through changes in near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave albedo.

Strengths

• Provides daily global coverage at a consistent 500-meter spatial resolution.
• Includes calibrated Version 6.1 data with improvements for RVS, optical crosstalk, and polarization corrections.
• Offers band-specific quality flags for isolating high-quality full inversion results.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total size, and complete column list are not provided by any source.
• License information conflicts between sources: NASA Earthdata and AWS list CC-BY-4.0, while Data.gov lists 'other-license-specified'.

Provenance

Source

NASA LPCLOUD, generated from Terra and Aqua MODIS satellite data.

Collection Method

Produced daily using a 16-day data composite from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), temporally weighted to the ninth day.

Time Range

Coverage spans the operational lifetime of the Terra (since 1999) and Aqua (since 2002) satellites, with specific calibration updates for 2012-2017 noted.

Freshness

2026-03-12 23:35:32.657768 (as listed on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov platforms)

Geography

Global land coverage.