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Description

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD43A4 Version 6.1 Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) dataset is produced daily using 16 days of Terra and Aqua MODIS data at 500 meter (m) resolution. The view angle effects are removed from the directional reflectances, resulting in a stable and consistent NBAR product. Data are temporally weighted to the ninth day which is reflected in the Julian date in the file name.

Users are urged to use the band specific quality flags to isolate the highest quality full inversion results for their own science applications as described in the User Guide.

The MCD43A4 provides NBAR and simplified mandatory quality layers for MODIS bands 1 through 7. Essential quality information provided in the corresponding MCD43A2 data file should be consulted when using this product.

Known Issues

Version Description

The following changes and improvements were implemented for inputs to MODIS Version 6.1 BRDF/Albedo Model Parameters data products: (1) Version 6.1 Level-1B (L1B) products have been improved by undergoing various calibration changes that include: changes to the response-versus-scan angle (RVS) approach that affects reflectance bands for Aqua and Terra MODIS, corrections to adjust for the optical crosstalk in Terra MODIS infrared (IR) bands, and corrections to the Terra MODIS forward look-up table (LUT) update for the period 2012 – 2017, and (2) A polarization correction has been applied to the L1B Reflective Solar Bands (RSB).

Product Summary

Platforms
Terra ,
Aqua
Instruments
MODIS
Spatial Extent

N: 90 S: -90 E: 180 W: -180

Spatial Resolution
500 Meters x 500 Meters
Spatial Reference System(s)
MODIS Sinusoidal Tiling System
Location
GLOBAL
Coordinate System
CARTESIAN
Granule Spatial Representation
GEODETIC
Temporal Extent
2000-02-16 to Present
Temporal Resolution
1 Day
Data Partner
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) ,
School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMASS-B/SFE) ,
MODIS Adaptive Processing System, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, Science and Exploration Directorate, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA (NASA/GSFC/SED/ESD/TISL/MODAPS)
Concept ID
C2218719731-LPCLOUD
Data State
ACTIVE
Number of Files/Granules
2942339
Processing Level
3
Published
Updated
Science Keywords
Reflectance ,
Anisotropy

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.

Copy Citation

Schaaf, C., & Wang, Z. (2021). MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo Nadir BRDF Adjusted Ref Daily L3 Global - 500m V061 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A4.061 Date Accessed: 2026-05-12

File Naming Convention

MCD43A4.A2025212.h04v10.061.2025221032559.hdf

The file name begins with the Product Short Name (MCD43A4) followed by the Julian Date of Acquisition formatted as AYYYYDDD (A2025212), the Tile Identifier which is horizontal tile and vertical tile provided as hXXvYY (h04v10), the Version of the data collection (061), the Julian Date and Time of Production designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2025221032559), and the Data Format (hdf).

Documents

USER'S GUIDE

ALGORITHM THEORETICAL BASIS DOCUMENT (ATBD)

PRODUCT QUALITY ASSESSMENT

SCIENCE DATA PRODUCT VALIDATION

GENERAL DOCUMENTATION

Publications Citing This Dataset

Filters
Title Year Author Topic
Skill and lead time of vegetation drought impact forecasts based on soil moisture observations Li, Yizhi, van Dijk, Albert I.J.M., Tian, Siyuan, Renzullo, Luigi J. Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy
Satellite solarinduced chlorophyll fluorescence tracks physiological drought stress development during 2020 southwest US drought Zhang, Yao, Fang, Jianing, Smith, William Kolby, Wang, Xian, Gentine, Pierre, Scott, Russell L., Migliavacca, Mirco, Jeong, Sujong, Litvak, Marcy, Zhou, Sha Reflectance, Anisotropy
Projecting live fuel moisture content via deep learning Miller, Lynn, Zhu, Liujun, Yebra, Marta, Rudiger, Christoph, Webb, Geoffrey I. RADAR IMAGERY, Terrain Elevation, Topographical Relief Maps, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Reflectance, Anisotropy
Unravelling geological controls on groundwater flow and surface Marti, Etienne, Leray, Sarah, Villela, Daniela, Maringue, Jose, Yanez, Gonzalo, Salazar, Esteban, Poblete, Fernando, Jimenez, Jose, Reyes, Gabriela, Poblete, Guillermo, Huaman, Zeidy, Figueroa, Ronny, Araya Vargas, Jaime, Sanhueza, Jorge, Munoz, Marjorie, Charrier, Reynaldo, Fernandez, Gabriel Reflectance, Anisotropy
STEEP: A remotely-sensed energy balance model for evapotranspiration Bezerra, Ulisses A., Cunha, John, Valente, Fernanda, Nobrega, Rodolfo L.B., Andrade, Joao M., Moura, Magna S.B., Verhoef, Anne, Perez-Marin, Aldrin M., Galvao, Carlos O. Reflectance, Anisotropy, Evapotranspiration, Latent Heat Flux
Explainable Machine Learning Confirms the Global Terrestrial Zhu, Songyan, Xu, Jian, Zeng, Jingya, Feng, Xianbang, Wang, Yapeng, Bao, Shanning, Shi, Jiancheng Reflectance, Anisotropy, Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness, Atmospheric Ozone, Reflectance
A dynamic hierarchical Bayesian approach for forecasting vegetation condition Salakpi, Edward E., Hurley, Peter D., Muthoka, James M., Bowell, Andrew, Oliver, Seb, Rowhani, Pedram Reflectance, Anisotropy
A hierarchical category structure based convolutional recurrent neural network (HCS-ConvRNN) for Land-Cover classification using dense MODIS Time-Series data Li, Jiayi, Zhang, Ben, Huang, Xin Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy
A convolutional neural network for spatial downscaling of satellite-based solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIFnet) Gensheimer, Johannes, Turner, Alexander J., Kohler, Philipp, Frankenberg, Christian, Chen, Jia Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Solar Induced Fluorescence, Reflectance, Anisotropy
A Bayesian Domain Adversarial Neural Network for Corn Yield Prediction Ma, Yuchi, Zhang, Zhou Reflectance, Anisotropy
A model framework to investigate the role of anomalous land surface processes in the amplification of summer drought across Ireland during 2018 Ishola, Kazeem A., Mills, Gerald, Fealy, Reamonn M., Fealy, Rowan Reflectance, Anisotropy, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
A new spatialtemporal depthwise separable convolutional fusion network for generating Landsat 8-day surface reflectance time series over forest regions Zhang, Yuzhen, Liu, Jindong, Liang, Shunlin, Li, Manyao Reflectance, Anisotropy
A view from space on global flux towers by MODIS and Landsat: the FluxnetEO data set Walther, Sophia, Besnard, Simon, Nelson, Jacob Allen, El-Madany, Tarek Sebastian, Migliavacca, Mirco, Weber, Ulrich, Carvalhais, Nuno, Ermida, Sofia Lorena, Brummer, Christian, Schrader, Frederik, Prokushkin, Anatoly Stanislavovich, Panov, Alexey Vasilevich, Jung, Martin Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo
An enhanced spatiotemporal fusion method Implications for DNN based time-series LAI estimation by using Sentinel-2 and MODIS Li, Yan, Ren, Yanzhao, Gao, Wanlin, Jia, Jingdun, Tao, Sha, Liu, Xinliang Reflectance, Anisotropy
A Reconstructed Global Daily Seamless SIF Product at 0.05 Degree Hu, Jiaochan, Jia, Jia, Ma, Yan, Liu, Liangyun, Yu, Haoyang Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo
An operational downscaling method of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) for regional drought monitoring Hong, Zhiming, Hu, Yijie, Cui, Changlu, Yang, Xining, Tao, Chongxin, Luo, Weiran, Zhang, Wen, Li, Linyi, Meng, Lingkui Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Anisotropy
Biogeographic variability in wildfire severity and post-fire vegetation recovery across the European forests via remote sensing-derived spectral metrics Nole, Angelo, Rita, Angelo, Spatola, Maria Floriana, Borghetti, Marco Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Reflectance, Anisotropy, Fire Ecology, Biomass Burning, Wildfires, Fire Occurrence, Burned Area
Bayesian additive regression trees in spatial data analysis with sparse Kim, Chanmin Reflectance, Anisotropy, Fossil Fuel Burning, Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Bayesian atmospheric correction over land: Sentinel-2/MSI and Landsat Yin, Feng, Lewis, Philip E., Gomez-Dans, Jose L. Reflectance, Anisotropy
Carbon and Water Cycling in Two Rubber Plantations and a Natural Forest Wang, Xueqian, Blanken, Peter D., Kasemsap, Poonpipope, Petchprayoon, Pakorn, Thaler, Philippe, Nouvellon, Yann, Gay, Frederic, Chidthaisong, Amnat, Sanwangsri, Montri, Chayawat, Chompunut, Chantuma, Pisamai, Sathornkich, Jate, Kaewthongrach, Rungnapa, Satakhun, Duangrat, Phattaralerphong, Jessada Reflectance, Anisotropy
Impact of BRDF spatiotemporal smoothing on land surface albedo estimation Yang, Jian, Shuai, Yanmin, Duan, Junbo, Xie, Donghui, Zhang, Qingling, Zhao, Ruishan Reflectance, Albedo, Anisotropy, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Impact of Image-Processing Routines on Mapping Glacier Surface Facies Jawak, Shridhar D., Wankhede, Sagar F., Luis, Alvarinho J., Balakrishna, Keshava Terrain Elevation, Digital Elevation/Terrain Model (DEM), Topographical Relief Maps, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo
How long is the memory of forest growth to rainfall in asynchronous Joshi, Rakesh Chandra, Sheridan, Gary J., Ryu, Dongryeol, Lane, Patrick N.J. Reflectance, Anisotropy
Forecasting vegetation condition with a bayesian auto-regressive distributed lags (bardl) model Salakpi, Edward E., Hurley, Peter D., Muthoka, James M., Barrett, Adam B., Bowell, Andrew, Oliver, Seb, Rowhani, Pedram Reflectance, Anisotropy
Global estimates of 500 m daily aerodynamic roughness length from MODIS data Peng, Zhong, Tang, Ronglin, Jiang, Yazhen, Liu, Meng, Li, Zhao-Liang Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Reflectance, Anisotropy, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
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