Daily Global White Sky Albedo for Visible Broadband

MCD43D59 Version 6.1 provides daily white-sky albedo values for the MODIS visible broadband, calculated from 16 days of Terra and Aqua MODIS observations. The LPCLOUD organization produces this Climate Modeling Grid product at a 30 arc-second (1,000 meter) resolution for the entire globe. Data are temporally weighted to the ninth day of each 16-day acquisition period.

Use Cases

• Validate climate model surface reflectance parameters using the daily white-sky albedo layer.
• Analyze temporal trends in surface albedo for the visible broadband across global land cover.
• Assess albedo-driven radiative forcing in climate simulations by integrating the 30 arc-second CMG data.
• Compare white-sky albedo values with black-sky albedo products (MCD43D42-MCD43D61) for full BRDF analysis.
• Filter data for high-quality results using the band-specific quality flags described in the user guide.

Strengths

• Daily temporal resolution derived from 16-day MODIS observation windows.
• Global spatial coverage at a consistent 30 arc-second Climate Modeling Grid resolution.
• Product is part of a suite of 20 albedo layers (10 black-sky, 10 white-sky) for comprehensive analysis.

Limitations

• Each product file contains only one data layer, requiring multiple files for multi-band analysis.
• Data quality is variable and requires user application of quality flags to isolate high-quality inversions.
• Temporal representation is a weighted composite, not a direct daily measurement.

Provenance

Source

LPCLOUD using NASA Terra and Aqua MODIS instruments.

Collection Method

Produced daily using 16 days of MODIS data, temporally weighted to the ninth day.

Freshness

Daily

Geography

Global