The MCD43D40 Version 6 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo (BRDF/Albedo) QA SnowStatus data set is a daily 16-day product. This product incorporates the Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) structure in which each file geographically covers the entire earth rather than the 10 degree x 10 degree latitude and longitude tiling system utilized by the standard MODIS land products. Unlike the standard CMG pixel resolution of 5600 meters the MCD43D products are 1000 meters, so consequently, because of the large file size each product contains just one layer. The Julian date in the granule ID of each specific file represents the 9th day of the 16 day retrieval period, and consequently the observations are weighted to estimate the values for that day.
The MCD43D40 contains the snow status quality layer for the corresponding BRDF/Albedo products retrieval period. Each pixel will have a value of either 0, 1, or 255. Zero represents “Snow –free Albedo Retrieved” and 1 is “Snow Albedo Retrieved”, while 255 is fill value. The MODIS BRDF/ALBEDO products have achieved stage 3 validation.

Improvements/Changes from Previous Versions

• The MCD43 products are generated daily, still using the 16-day retrieval algorithm.
• Observations are weighted to estimate the BRDF/Albedo at the first day of the 2nd 8-day period of the 16-day period.
• The MCD43 products use an improved back up database – they are pixel based updated from the latest full inversion as opposed to the land cover based DB used in C5.
• There is improved quality and more retrieval at high latitudes from use of all available observations. C5 used only four observations per day.
• MCD43 products now use current day snow status instead of the majority snow/no-snow status from the 16-day period.
• The MCD43 products now uses L2G-lite surface reflectance as input

Citation

PI Name: Crystal Schaaf

DOI: 10.5067/MODIS/MCD43D40.006

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