MCD43D31: Daily Global BRDF/Albedo Quality Data for Climate Models

MCD43D31 Version 6.1 provides daily Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo quality information at 30 arc second (1,000 meter) resolution. The dataset is produced by NASA using 16 days of Terra and Aqua MODIS data, temporally weighted to the ninth day, and covers the entire globe. It is designed for use in climate simulation models and includes quality layers for MODIS spectral bands 1 through 7.

Use Cases

• Filtering high-quality full inversion results for albedo studies based on the band-specific quality flags.
• Assessing surface radiative properties for climate models based on the global Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) product.
• Monitoring temporal changes in land surface reflectance based on the daily, temporally-weighted data production.

Strengths

• Produced daily with a 16-day data window, offering frequent temporal coverage.
• Global coverage at 30 arc second (1,000 meter) resolution, suitable for climate-scale analysis.
• Version 6.1 incorporates specific calibration improvements, including RVS, crosstalk, and polarization corrections.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific ML tasks.

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; temporal weighting to the ninth day of a 16-day window.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:24:45.427035; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global