MCD43A4: Daily Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance at 500m

NASA's MCD43A4 Version 6.1 dataset provides daily, global Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) at a 500-meter resolution. It is produced by combining 16 days of data from the Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites to remove view-angle effects, resulting in a stable surface reflectance product. The dataset includes NBAR and quality layers for MODIS spectral bands 1-7, with essential quality flags provided in the companion MCD43A2 product.

Use Cases

• Monitoring vegetation phenology and health based on daily, angle-corrected surface reflectance.
• Calculating land surface albedo for climate and energy balance models using the BRDF-adjusted bands.
• Detecting land cover and land use change over time with the consistent 500m global time series.
• Assessing surface anisotropy and bidirectional reflectance effects for improved satellite data inter-comparison.

Strengths

• Provides daily global coverage at a consistent 500-meter spatial resolution.
• Incorporates data from both Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites, improving temporal compositing.
• Version 6.1 includes specific calibration improvements for the period 2012-2017 and a polarization correction.
• Available under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license on at least one major platform.

Limitations

• Essential quality information is stored in a separate companion file (MCD43A2), requiring users to manage multiple datasets.
• Metadata completeness varies across platforms, with column names, row counts, and size information consistently missing.
• The dataset's 'last updated' date (2026-04-09) on one platform appears to be a future date, indicating a potential metadata error.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing from the MODIS instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua platforms.

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:54:10.098585 (Note: This is a future date and may be a metadata error)

Geography

Global