NASA's MODIS instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites produce this daily Level 3 global product, which provides quality control flags for land surface reflectance and albedo retrievals. The dataset is a 16-day composite at a 500-meter resolution, organized in a sinusoidal grid tile system. It is generated by the MODIS Land Science Team to support the validation of related BRDF and albedo data products.
Use Cases
- Filtering low-quality pixels in the MCD43A1N BRDF model parameters product using the provided quality flags.
- Assessing retrieval reliability for the MCD43A3N albedo product by analyzing per-pixel quality information.
- Masking out unreliable data in the MCD43A4N Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) product based on daily quality flags.
- Monitoring temporal consistency of land surface observations by tracking quality flag changes across the 16-day composite period.
Strengths
- Global daily coverage at 500-meter spatial resolution.
- Provides a full set of pixel-level quality control flags for validating three core MODIS BRDF/Albedo products.
- Data is composited over a 16-day window to mitigate cloud cover and observational gaps.
Limitations
- Specific row count, column names, and sample size are unknown.
- The 500m resolution may be insufficient for fine-scale local studies.
- Product quality is dependent on the underlying MODIS sensor observations, which can be affected by atmospheric conditions.
Provenance
- Source
- NASA MODIS Land Science Team, via the MODIS instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites.
- Collection Method
- Satellite remote sensing data processed into a Level 3 gridded, tiled product.
- Time Range
- Daily composites, ongoing from the MODIS mission operational dates.
- Freshness
- Daily (Near Real Time product).
- Geography
- Global land surface, provided in a sinusoidal (SIN) grid tile system.