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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
2944427
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: 2026-05-19

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
Landsat analysis ready data for global land cover and land cover change mapping Potapov, Peter, Hansen, Matthew C., Kommareddy, Indrani, Kommareddy, Anil, Turubanova, Svetlana, Pickens, Amy, Adusei, Bernard, Tyukavina, Alexandra, Ying, Qing Reflectance, Anisotropy
Spatiotemporal characteristics of white mold and impacts on yield in soybean fields in South Dakota Mfuka, Confiance, Byamukama, Emmanuel, Zhang, Xiaoyang Reflectance, Anisotropy
STAIR 2.0A generic and automatic algorithm to fuse MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2 to generate 10 m, daily, and cloud-/gap-free surface reflectance product Luo, Yunan, Guan, Kaiyu, Peng, Jian, Wang, Sibo, Huang, Yizhi Reflectance, Anisotropy
Spatial quantification to examine the effectiveness of payments for Havinga, Ilan, Hein, Lars, Vega-Araya, Mauricio, Languillaume, Antoine Reflectance, Anisotropy, Canopy Characteristics, Evergreen Vegetation, Crown, Deciduous Vegetation, Leaf Characteristics, Vegetation Cover, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Spatial heterogeneity of climate variation and vegetation response for Arctic and high-elevation regions from 20012018 Wu, Wenjin, Sun, Xiaohui, Epstein, Howard, Xu, Xiyan, Li, Xinwu Reflectance, Anisotropy, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity
Remote sensing estimation of the soil erosion cover-management factor for China's Loess Plateau Yang, Xihua, Zhang, Xiaoping, Lv, Du, Yin, Shuiqing, Zhang, Mingxi, Zhu, Qinggaozi, Yu, Qiang, Liu, Baoyuan Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Reflectance, Anisotropy
Sun-induced fluorescence closely linked to ecosystem transpiration as Maes, Wouter H., Pagan, Brianna R., Martens, Brecht, Gentine, Pierre, Guanter, Luis, Steppe, Kathy, Verhoest, Niko E.C., Dorigo, Wouter, Li, Xing, Xiao, Jingfeng, Miralles, Diego G. Reflectance, Anisotropy
Satellite observations of forest resilience to hurricanes along the northern Gulf of Mexico Gang, Chengcheng, Pan, Shufen, Tian, Hanqin, Wang, Zhuonan, Xu, Rongting, Bian, Zihao, Pan, Naiqing, Yao, Yuanzhi, Shi, Hao Reflectance, Anisotropy
Remote sensing phenological monitoring framework to characterize corn and soybean physiological growing stages Diao, Chunyuan Reflectance, Anisotropy, Land Surface Temperature, Emissivity, Albedo
Remote sensing monitoring of vegetation dynamic changes after fire in the Greater Hinggan mountain areaThe algorithm and application for eliminating phenological impacts Huang, Zhibin, Cao, Chunxiang, Chen, Wei, Xu, Min, Dang, Yongfeng, Singh, Ramesh, Bashir, Barjeece, Xie, Bo, Lin, Xiaojuan Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Reflectance, Anisotropy
Sensitivity of surface fluxes in the ECMWF land surface model to the remotely sensed leaf area index and root distributionEvaluation with tower flux data Stevens, David, Miranda, Pedro M. A., Orth, Rene, Boussetta, Souhail, Balsamo, Gianpaolo, Dutra, Emanuel Reflectance, Anisotropy, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
The MODIS Global Vegetation Fractional Cover Product 2001-2018: Hill, Michael J., Guerschman, Juan P. Reflectance, Anisotropy
Warmer spring alleviated the impacts of 2018 European summer heatwave and drought on vegetation photosynthesis Wang, Songhan, Zhang, Yongguang, Ju, Weimin, Porcar-Castell, Albert, Ye, Shanshan, Zhang, Zhaoying, Brummer, Christian, Urbaniak, Marek, Mammarella, Ivan, Juszczak, Radosaw, Folkert Boersma, K. Reflectance, Anisotropy, Land Use/Land Cover Classification
Vegetation Trajectories and Shortwave Radiative Forcing Following Boreal Stuenzi, S. M., Schaepman-Strub, G. Reflectance, Anisotropy
Using OCO-2 satellite data for investigating the variability of atmospheric CO2 concentration in relationship with precipitation, relative humidity, and vegetation over Oman Golkar, Foroogh, Al-Wardy, Malik, Saffari, Seyedeh Fatemeh, Al-Aufi, Kathiya, Al-Rawas, Ghazi Reflectance, Anisotropy
Tracking Seasonal and Interannual Variability in Photosynthetic He, Liyin, Wood, Jeffrey D., Sun, Ying, Magney, Troy, Dutta, Debsunder, Kohler, Philipp, Zhang, Yongguang, Yin, Yi, Frankenberg, Christian Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar), Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity
Precipitation and minimum temperature are primary climatic controls of alpine grassland autumn phenology on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau An, Shuai, Chen, Xiaoqiu, Zhang, Xiaoyang, Lang, Weiguang, Ren, Shilong, Xu, Lin Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo
Postfire recruitment failure in Scots pine forests of southern Siberia Barrett, Kirsten, Baxter, Robert, Kukavskaya, Elena, Balzter, Heiko, Shvetsov, Evgeny, Buryak, Ludmila Reflectance, Anisotropy
Vegetation changes attributable to refugees in Africa coincide with Maystadt, Jean-Francois, Mueller, Valerie, Van Den Hoek, Jamon, van Weezel, Stijn Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Photosynthesis, Primary Production, Vegetation Productivity, Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)
Vegetation cover dependence on accumulated antecedent precipitation in Australia: Relationships with photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic vegetation fractions Guerschman, Juan P., Hill, Michael J., Leys, John, Heidenreich, Stephan Reflectance, Anisotropy
Rapid assessment of hillslope erosion risk after the 20192020 wildfires and storm events in sydney drinking water catchment Yang, Xihua, Zhang, Mingxi, Oliveira, Lorena, Ollivier, Quinn R., Faulkner, Shane, Roff, Adam Reflectance, Anisotropy
Re-understanding of land surface albedo and related terms in satellite-based retrievals Shuai, Yanmin, Tuerhanjiang, Latipa, Shao, Congying, Gao, Feng, Zhou, Yuyu, Xie, Donghui, Liu, Tao, Liang, Ji, Chu, Nan Land Use/Land Cover Classification, Reflectance, Anisotropy, Albedo
Reconstruction of Cloud-free Sentinel-2 Image Time-series Using an Extended Spatiotemporal Image Fusion Approach Zhou, Fuqun, Zhong, Detang, Peiman, Rihana Reflectance, Anisotropy
Reconstruction of cloud-free sentinel-2 image time-series using an extended spatiotemporal image fusion approach Kuibida, Roman, Moroz, Liana, Smaliuk, Roman Reflectance, Anisotropy
Recent global decline of CO2 fertilization effects on vegetation Wang, Songhan, Zhang, Yongguang, Ju, Weimin, Chen, Jing M., Ciais, Philippe, Cescatti, Alessandro, Sardans, Jordi, Janssens, Ivan A., Wu, Mousong, Berry, Joseph A., Campbell, Elliott, Fernandez-Martinez, Marcos, Alkama, Ramdane, Sitch, Stephen, Friedlingstein, Pierre, Smith, William K., Yuan, Wenping, He, Wei, Lombardozzi, Danica, Kautz, Markus, Zhu, Dan, Lienert, Sebastian, Kato, Etsushi, Poulter, Benjamin, Sanders, Tanja G. M., Kruger, Inken, Wang, Rong, Zeng, Ning, Tian, Hanqin, Vuichard, Nicolas, Jain, Atul K., Wiltshire, Andy, Haverd, Vanessa, Goll, Daniel S., Penuelas, Josep Reflectance, Anisotropy, Leaf Characteristics, Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction Of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fapar)
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