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Full catalog/modis-terraaqua-mcd43a4
modis-terraaqua-mcd43a4·dataset

View-corrected daily ground reflectance, 500 m

MODIS Terra and Aqua BRDF Albedo Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance Daily L3 Global 500m
land ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. It provides daily surface reflectance across seven color bands that has been adjusted to remove the distorting effect of viewing angle, giving a stable, consistent look at the land as if seen straight overhead.

How it's made. Produced by ESA Copernicus from NASA's MODIS instruments on Terra and Aqua, using 16 days of combined observations to model and correct angle effects, delivered daily as a Level-3 product.

How & where you'd use it. A reliable, comparable base layer for tracking land changes over time, computing vegetation and land-cover metrics, and ensuring consistency across dates and locations.

What's measured

MODISTerraAquaNASASatelliteGlobalImageryOpticalReflectanceBRDFAlbedo500mMCD43A4

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-02-16 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

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 MODIS Terra and Aqua MCD43A4 Version 6.1 product provides Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) at 500 m spatial resolution. The dataset is generated daily using 16 days of combined Terra and Aqua MODIS observations. Directional reflectance values are adjusted to remove view angle effects, resulting in a stable and consistent NBAR product. The data are temporally weighted to the ninth day of the 16-day period, which is reflected in the Julian date of the file name. The product includes NBAR reflectance for MODIS bands 1-7 along with simplified mandatory quality layers. For detailed quality information, users are advised to consult the corresponding MCD43A2 dataset.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["modis-terraaqua-mcd43a4"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.