Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/MCD43D36
MCD43D36·v061·dataset

Quality flags for surface reflectivity, green band (MODIS, daily, 1 km)

MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo QA ValidobsBand4 Daily L3 Global 30ArcSec CMG V061
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 active HDF-EOS2
In plain English

What it measures. Quality-control information for MODIS's green band (band 4) surface-reflectance data, recording how many good observations went into each value over the retrieval period. It describes data quality rather than a physical quantity.

How it's made. Built daily from 16 days of combined Terra and Aqua MODIS observations at about 1 km resolution, packaged as a single quality layer for the global reflectance product suite.

How & where you'd use it. Used alongside the matching reflectance data to pick out the highest-quality results; a companion layer rather than a standalone measurement.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › ALBEDOLAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › ANISOTROPYLAND SURFACE › SURFACE RADIATIVE PROPERTIES › REFLECTANCE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-16 → ongoing
  • Measured byTerra (MODIS) · Aqua (MODIS)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF-EOS2
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The MCD43D36 Version 6.1 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo (BRDF/Albedo) QA ValidObs Band 4 dataset is produced daily using 16 days of Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data at 30 arc second (1,000 meter (m)) resolution. Data are temporally weighted to the ninth day which is reflected in the Julian date in the file name. This Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) product covers the entire globe for use in climate simulation models. Due to the large file size, each MCD43D product contains just one data layer. MCD43D36 provides MODIS band 4 valid observation quality information for the MCD43D products. 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](https://www.umb.edu/spectralmass/modis-user-guide-v006-and-v0061/mcd43d-cmg-30-arc-second-products/). MCD43D36 contains the valid observation quality layer representing each of the 16 days of the retrieval period for MODIS band 4. Known Issues * For complete information about known issues please refer to the [MODIS/VIIRS Land Quality Assessment website](https://landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/knownissue?sensor=MODIS&sat=TerraAqua&as=61).

Get the data

mcd43d36_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD43D36",
    version="061",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.