Tracking daily land surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS)

A new algorithm provides daily values of land surface albedo and angular reflectance at a 500-m spatial resolution using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments currently in orbit on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellite platforms. To overcome the day-to-day variance in observed surface reflectance induced by differences in view and solar illumination angles, the algorithm uses the RossThickLiSparse-Reciprocal bidirectional reflectance model, which is fitted to all MODIS observations of a 500-m resolution cell acquired during a 16-day moving window. Individual observations are weighted by their quality, observation coverage, and proximity to the production date of interest. Product quality is measured by (1) the root mean square error (RMSE) of observations against the best model fit; and (2) the ability of the angular sampling pattern of the observations at hand to determine reflectance model parameters accurately. A regional analysis of model fits to data from selected MODIS data tiles establishes the bounds of these quality measures for application in the daily algorithm.;The algorithm, which is now available to users of direct broadcast satellite data from MODIS, allows daily monitoring of rapid surface radiation and land surface change phenomena such as crop development and forest foliage cycles. In two demonstrations, the daily algorithm captured rapid change in plant phenology. The growth phases of a winter wheat crop, as monitored at the Yucheng agricultural research station in Yucheng, China, matched MODIS daily multispectral reflectance data very well, especially during the flowering and heading stages. The daily algorithm also captured the daily change in autumn leaf color in New England, documenting the ability of the algorithm to work well over large regions with varying degrees of cloud cover and atmospheric conditions.;Daily surface albedos measured using ground-based instruments on towers at the agricultural and forest locations also compared very favorably with the MODIS albedo measures derived with the new daily algorithm, achieving RMSE values of less than 0.03 units.