MCD43D61: Daily Global White-Sky Albedo for Climate Models

Global daily white-sky albedo (shortwave broadband) data at 1,000-meter resolution, produced by NASA using 16 days of MODIS observations from Terra and Aqua satellites. The data is temporally weighted to the ninth day of the 16-day period and is formatted as a Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) product. This Version 6 product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, with users encouraged to use the updated Version 6.1.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing climate simulation models based on daily global shortwave albedo.
• Analyzing surface radiative properties for land studies based on white-sky albedo.
• Assessing changes in Earth's energy budget based on MODIS-derived broadband albedo.
• Validating land surface models based on satellite-derived bihemispherical reflectance.

Strengths

• Produced daily using 16 days of Terra and Aqua MODIS observations.
• Global coverage at a consistent 30 arc second (1,000-meter) resolution.
• Data is temporally weighted to the ninth day of the observation period.
• Part of a suite of 20 albedo products covering specific MODIS bands and broadbands.

Limitations

• The product was decommissioned on July 31, 2023, due to known issues in Collection 6.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Produced daily from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data on Terra and Aqua satellites.

Time Range

Daily production, using a rolling 16-day observation window.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:37:36.062151; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global