UMass Boston

MCD43D CMG 30 Arc-Second Products

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"Please note: the collection 6 MCD43 data has been superseded by a major reprocessing effort, collection 6.1.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."

For details of the MCD43D CMG 30 Arc-Second Products see the full specification (V006 and V006.1). The V006 and V006.1 MCD43D is retrieved separately from the 500m MCD43A1 (in other words all observations within a 30 arcsecond grid are utilized to retrieve the BRDF model parameters). Because of the large size of the products, each parameter for each of the 7 MODIS bands and the 3 broadbands are stored in a separate MCD43D file. Therefore MCD43D1 is MODIS band 1 (red) fiso parameter, MCD43D2 is MODIS band 1 fvol parameter and so on through to MCD43D30. MCD43D31-MCD43D41 is the 30arc second BRDF/Albedo Quality, Local Solar Noon, ValidObs Bands1-7, Snow Status and Uncertainty. MCD43D42-MCD43D51 is black-sky albedo (BSA) at local solar noon for the 7 MODIS bands followed by the three broadbands. MCD43D52-61 is the white-sky albedo (WSA) for the 7 bands and the three broadbands. Finally MCD43D62-68 provide the 30arcsecond NBAR (at local solar noon) for the 7 MODIS land bands.

Note that MCD43B 1 km tiled products have been discontinued and MCD43D products are offered in their place.

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:

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

Professor Crystal Schaaf’s Lab

School for the Environment
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125