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Full catalog/MCD43GF
MCD43GF·v061·dataset

How much sunlight the ground reflects, gap-filled (Terra+Aqua)

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

What it measures. How much sunlight the ground reflects across the globe each day, accounting for the angle of sun and view. This version is gap-filled so every spot has a value, with snow effects removed.

How it's made. Derived from MODIS instruments on the Terra and Aqua satellites, then extra processing fills in missing pixels and removes temporary snow to create a smooth daily global grid.

How & where you'd use it. Feeds climate and weather models that need to know how much solar energy land surfaces bounce back versus absorb, which influences temperature.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-03-03 → 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 Daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo (BRDF/Albedo) 30 arc second, Global Gap-Filled, Snow-Free, (MCD43GF) Version 6.1 is derived from the 30 arc second Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) MCD43D Version 6.1 product suite, with additional processing to provide a gap-filled, snow-free product. The highest quality full inversion values were used for the temporal fitting effort and supplemented with lower quality pixels, spatial fitting, and spatial smoothing as needed. The status of each pixel can be found in the quality layer for each band. To generate a snow-free product, pixels with ephemeral snow were removed using the [MCD43D41](https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD43D41.061) snow flags. The underlying MCD43D utilizes a BRDF model derived from all available high quality cloud clear reflectance data over a 16 day moving window centered on and emphasizing the daily day of interest (the ninth day of each retrieval period as reflected in the Julian date in the filename). This 30 arc second BRDF model is then used to produce the Albedo and NBAR products (MCD43D). These BRDF model parameters are computed for MODIS spectral bands 1 through 7 (0.47 um, 0.55 um, 0.67 um, 0.86 um, 1.24 um, 1.64 um, 2.1 um), as well as the shortwave infrared band (0.3-5.0 um), visible band (0.3-0.7 um), and near-infrared (0.7-5.0 um) broad bands. The MCD43GF product includes 67 layers containing black-sky albedo (BSA) at local solar noon, isotropic model parameter (ISO), volumetric model parameter (VOL), geometric model parameter (GEO), quality (QA), Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) at local solar noon, and white-sky albedo (WSA). Due to the large file size, each data layer is distributed as a separate HDF file. Users are encouraged to download the quality layers for each of the 10 bands to check quality assessment information before using the BRDF/Albedo data. The MCD43 product is not recommended for solar zenith angles beyond 70 degrees. 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/mcd43gf-cmg-gap-filled-snow-free-products/). 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?sat=TerraAqua&as=61) and the [User Guide](https://www.umb.edu/spectralmass/modis-user-guide-v006-and-v0061/mcd43gf-cmg-gap-filled-snow-free-products/).

Get the data

mcd43gf_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD43GF",
    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.