MCD43D51: Daily Global Black-Sky Albedo at 1km Resolution

MCD43D51 Version 6 was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, with users directed to a newer version. This NASA product provides daily global black-sky albedo (shortwave broadband) at 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) resolution, generated from 16 days of MODIS data from the Terra and Aqua satellites. Data are temporally weighted to the ninth day of the 16-day period for use in climate simulation models.

Use Cases

• Climate model initialization and validation based on daily, global shortwave albedo data.
• Land surface process studies analyzing directional hemispherical reflectance (black-sky albedo).
• Trend analysis of surface radiative properties using the 16-day temporal compositing method described.
• Quality assessment of satellite-derived albedo products using the provided band-specific quality flags.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage at a consistent 30 arc-second (1km) resolution.
• Daily temporal product derived from 16 days of MODIS observations from two satellites.
• Produced by NASA, a leading authority in Earth observation science.

Limitations

• This specific version (V006) is decommissioned; the description advises using a corrected version (V6.1).
• Known issues in Collection 6, particularly over arid bright surfaces, are noted in the description.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Produced daily using 16 days of Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data.

Time Range

Daily production; data are temporally weighted to the ninth day of a 16-day period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:26:54.736403; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Entire globe.