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MCD43A1 BRDF/Albedo Model Parameters Product

MODIS User Guide V006 and V006.1

This Guide is a living document that describes the MODIS BRDF and Albedo Products. It is revised as progress is made in the development of these products. The purpose of the document is to give the potential user an understanding of the MCD43 products and the current state of the data in those products.

Note: The reprocessed (V006 and V006.1) MODIS BRDF/Albedo products have been assigned a "Validated (Stage 3) Status". Users are urged to use the band specific quality flags to isolate the highest quality full inversion results for their own science applications.

"Please note: the collection 6 MCD43 data has been superseded by a major reprocessing effort, collection 6.1. These data will be available from the LP DAAC, and will replace the collection 6 data. Users are strongly advised to switch to the collection 6.1 data as soon as possible. Please see the MODIS Land Team website for more information."

The MCD43A1 BRDF/Albedo Model Parameters Product (MODIS/Terra BRDF/Albedo Model_1 Daily L3 Global 500m SIN Grid) supplies the weighting parameters associated with the RossThickLiSparseReciprocal BRDF model that best describes the anisotropy of each pixel. These three parameters (fiso , fvol , fgeo) are provided for each of the MODIS spectral bands as well as for three broad bands (0.3-0.7µm, 0.7-5.0µm, and 0.3-5.0µm). These parameters can be used in a forward version of the model to reconstruct the surface anisotropic effects and thus correct directional reflectances to a common view geometry (this is the procedure that is used to produce MCD43A4 Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectances - NBAR) or to compute the integrated black-sky (at some solar zenith angle) and white-sky albedos (as are done for MCD43A3). Alternately, the parameters can be used with a simple polynomial to easily estimate the black-sky albedo with good accuracy for any desired solar zenith angle.

The polynomial is as follows:

Polynomial Equation

 

 

 

The appropriate constants are:

Term Isotropic (iso) RossThick (vol) LiSparseR (geo)
g0  1.0 -0.007574 -1.284909
g1  0.0 -0.070987 -0.166314
g2  0.0 0.307588 0.041840

Similarly, the white-sky albedo can be computed by using the equation:

White-Sky Calculation

and the estimates of the white-sky kernel integrals are:

Term Isotropic (iso) RossThick (vol) LiSparseR (geo)
White-sky
integral g
 1.0  0.189184 -1.377622


Science Data Sets

While the full MCD43A1 specification should be consulted for the most current description, the product includes four Science Data Sets (SDS) for each pixel in the tile. These SDSs are BRDF_Albedo_Parameters (three model parameters representing fiso, fvol, fgeo for the RossThickLiSparseReciprocal BRDF model that are computed for bands 1-7 and three broad bands), and BRDF_Albedo_Band_Mandatory_Quality* (containing 1 byte of quality flags).

Note that the V006 and V006.1 MODIS MCD43 products are retrieved daily and represent the best BRDF possible based on 16 days’ worth of inputs with the day of interest emphasized. Unlike the earlier reprocessed versions (where the date of the product signifies the first day of the retrieval period), and the Direct Broadcast version (where the date signifies the last day of the retrieval period), the date associated with each daily V006 and V006.1 retrieval is the center of the moving 16 day input window. This change is in response to user requests.

Mandatory QA values for Collection 6:

          0 = processed, good quality (full BRDF inversions)

          1 = processed, see other QA (magnitude BRDF inversions)

Mandatory QA values for Collection 6.1:

0 = processed, good quality (full BRDF inversions)

1 = processed, see other QA (magnitude BRDF inversions)

2 = processed, good quality (full BRDF inversions, only Band 6 is fill value due to non-functional or noisy detectors)

3 = processed, see other QA (magnitude BRDF inversions, only Band 6 is fill value due to non-functional or noisy detectors)

4 = processed, good quality (full BRDF inversions, only Band 5 is fill value due to non-functional or noisy detectors)

5 = processed, see other QA (magnitude BRDF inversions, only Band 5 is fill value due to non-functional or noisy detectors)

6 = processed, good quality (full BRDF inversions, both Band5 and Band 6 are fill value due to non-functional or noisy detectors)

7 = processed, see other QA (magnitude BRDF inversions, both Band 5 and Band 6 are fill value due to non-functional or noisy

Local Attributes

In addition to the actual SDS data values produced at each pixel in a tile, each SDS is associated with a number of standard Local Attributes that apply to the data. For the BRDF_Albedo_Parameters SDS they include:

Name: Type: Value:
long_name HDF-STRING "BRDF_Albedo_Parameters"
units HDF-STRING "no units"
valid_range HDF-int16 0, 32766
_FillValue HDF-int16 32767
add_offset HDF-float64 0.0
add_offset_err HDF-float64 0.0
calibrated_nt HDF-int32 5
scale_factor HDF-float64 0.001
scale_factor_err HDF-float64 0.0

Global Attributes (Metadata)

In addition to the albedo and quality information (SDSs and Local Attributes) that is provided at a per-pixel level, each tile of the Level 3 MCD43A1 Parameters Product also includes three types of Global Attributes or Metadata which summarize the tile. These are Core, Archive, and Structural Metadata. Of particular interest to the user community are the Core Metadata QAFLAGS of SCIENCEQUALITYFLAG and SCIENCEQUALITYFLAGEXPLANATION and some of the Additional Attributes which identify the tile number or which summarize the quality of the product over that entire tile (see the full MCD43A1 specification for the complete listing).


Professor Crystal Schaaf’s Lab

School for the Environment
University of Massachusetts Boston
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