MODIS BRDF/Albedo (MCD43)¶

MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo (MCD43) Collection 6.1 — BRDF model parameters, surface albedo and nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance, produced daily from a 16-day window

Being replaced

At a glance¶

Note on period: CMR lists 2000-02-16 as the start, with no end date (ongoing). Before Aqua joined in mid-2002 the product used Terra observations only. Because each file is dated to the middle of its 16-day window, the newest file lags real time by about ten days (on 2026-10-13 the latest MCD43A3 file was A2026275 = 2026-10-02).

Overview¶

MCD43 is the MODIS land team's standard BRDF/albedo suite. For every pixel, cloud-free multi-angle observations from Terra and Aqua over 16 days are fitted with a kernel-driven bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF; the RossThick/LiSparse-Reciprocal model), and the fitted model is used to compute black-sky and white-sky albedo and nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance (NBAR). Since Collection 6 the 16-day window slides forward one day at a time to give daily retrievals, with the 9th day emphasized so that fast surface changes such as snowfall, snowmelt, green-up and crop growth are captured. It comes as 500 m tiles (A products) and as global 0.05° and 30 arc-second grids (C and D products), and is a reference dataset for evaluating land surface albedo in climate models and for surface radiation budget studies.

What changes with the successor¶

MODIS MCD43 C6.1 (Terra+Aqua) → VIIRS VNP43·VJ143 C2 Planned¶

Transition: 2026

To prepare for the end of Terra and Aqua, NASA produces VNP43 (Suomi NPP), VJ143 (NOAA-20) and VJ243 (NOAA-21) by applying the same algorithm (RossThick/LiSparse-Reciprocal BRDF, 16-day window weighted to the 9th day) to VIIRS data as the MODIS follow-on. Resolution, bands, file format and observing time differ, so the records cannot simply be joined.

Sources: Liu et al. (2017) — evaluation of VIIRS BRDF/Albedo/NBAR and continuity with the MODIS record · Román et al. (2024) — continuity between MODIS C6.1 and VIIRS C2 land products · NASA Earthdata — Transition from MODIS to VIIRS (2025-05-02) · LAADS DAAC — MODIS To VIIRS Transition

Compare the two side by side

MCD43 Collection 6 → MCD43 Collection 6.1¶

Transition: 2021-02

A reprocessing with improved Level 1B calibration (reflective-band response, Terra IR crosstalk correction, polarization correction). The algorithm is unchanged, and the quality flag gained values marking missing bands 5 and 6. LP DAAC stopped distributing Collection 6.0 on 31 July 2023 (except MCD43GF).

Sources: LP DAAC MCD43A3 V061 product page (Improvements/Changes) · MODIS Version 6.0 Land Data Products Decommissioned (Earthdata)

Available variables¶

Names inside the files, checked against the LP DAAC product pages and LAADS V061 file specifications. Albedo and BRDF parameters are INT16 with scale_factor 0.001, NBAR uses 0.0001, and the fill value is 32767. Band1–Band7 are MODIS bands 1–7 (620–2155 nm); vis, nir and shortwave are broadbands. The files are HDF-EOS2 (HDF4).

instantaneous mean accumulated maximum minimum static — instantaneous: value at the time stamp · mean/accumulated/maximum/minimum: over the indicated interval · static: does not change with time

Albedo (MCD43A3 500 m / MCD43C3 0.05°)¶

Nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance, NBAR (MCD43A4 500 m / MCD43C4 0.05°)¶

BRDF model parameters (MCD43A1 500 m / MCD43C1, C2 0.05°)¶

Quality and ancillary information (MCD43A2 500 m)¶

The full variable list is in the official documentation.

How to get the data¶

• NASA Earthdata Search (LP DAAC, Earthdata Cloud) — Web search and download / earthaccess (HDF-EOS2)
  • MCD43A1, A2, A3 and A4 (500 m tiles), MCD43C1–C4 (0.05° CMG), MCD43D01–D68 (30 arc-second per band and variable) and MCD43GF (snow-free, gap-filled) are all available as V061. In CMR the short name is, for example, MCD43A3 with version 061. A free Earthdata Login is required.
• NASA AppEEARS — Point and area extraction with reprojection (GeoTIFF, NetCDF4)
  • Returns point time series or latitude–longitude grids without handling Sinusoidal tiles yourself — the easiest route for first-time users.
• LP DAAC product page (MCD43A3 V061) — Documentation, layer tables, DOI
• Google Earth Engine (MODIS/061/MCD43A4, MODIS/061/MCD43C3, etc.) — Cloud analysis (Earth Engine account required)
  • A redistributed copy of the NASA data; update timing can differ from the original.

Example code¶

Downloads one day of MCD43A3 tiles for April 2024 with earthaccess and reads white-sky shortwave albedo. The files are HDF4, so pyhdf is used (pip install earthaccess pyhdf numpy). The example keeps only full inversions (quality 0).

import earthaccess
import numpy as np
from pyhdf.SD import SD, SDC

earthaccess.login()  # free NASA Earthdata account
results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="MCD43A3", version="061",
    temporal=("2024-04-15", "2024-04-15"),
    bounding_box=(124, 33, 132, 39),   # (west, south, east, north)
)
files = earthaccess.download(results, "mcd43a3")

for f in files:
    sd = SD(f, SDC.READ)
    wsa = sd.select("Albedo_WSA_shortwave")[:].astype("float32")
    qa = sd.select("BRDF_Albedo_Band_Mandatory_Quality_shortwave")[:]
    wsa[wsa == 32767] = np.nan        # fill value
    wsa *= 0.001                      # scale_factor
    wsa[qa != 0] = np.nan             # keep full inversions only
    print(f, np.nanmean(wsa))

# A file date such as A2024106 is the 9th day of the 16-day window.

Practical tips¶

• Values are stored as integers. Multiply albedo and BRDF parameters by 0.001 and NBAR by 0.0001, after first setting the fill value 32767 to missing.
• LP DAAC and the user guide recommend using the per-band quality flags to keep only full inversions (value 0). Magnitude inversions (1) come from pixels with too few observations and are much less certain.
• Collection 6.1 added quality values 2–7, which flag cases where band 5 or 6 (1.24 and 1.64 µm) was set to fill because of non-functional or noisy detectors — many Aqua MODIS band 6 detectors do not work. Check these values if your analysis uses those bands.
• Do not treat a file as one day's observation. The 16-day windows overlap, so neighbouring dates are strongly correlated and day-to-day differences cannot pin down the timing of a change.
• During snow-covered periods the retrieval is a snow retrieval (see Snow_BRDF_Albedo). For snow-free background albedo use MCD43C2 (snow-free parameters) or MCD43GF.
• The 500 m products are MODIS Sinusoidal tiles (hXXvYY). For a latitude–longitude grid, reproject with AppEEARS or use the 0.05° CMG (MCD43C3).
• Orbit drift has shifted Terra and Aqua crossing times, increasing low-sun observations and shadows, and the lower orbits no longer keep a strict 16-day repeat. Keep this in mind when analysing trends from the 2020s onward.
• The MODIS land team has said it is preparing a final reprocessing, Collection 7 (all products in netCDF4), but as of 2026-10-13 CMR lists no MCD43 C7 collection. When C7 appears the whole record will change, so do not mix it with C6.1.
• Since 7 July 2023 the platforms have been flown with Lights-Out-Operations, so non-recoverable data gaps are more frequent than before. Check the dates on the LDOPE quality site (landweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov).

Notices and change history¶

References for your paper¶

Dataset citation¶

MCD43A3 V061 (albedo, 500 m) — DOI 10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A3.061

@misc{mcd43a3_v061,
  author    = {Schaaf, Crystal and Wang, Zhuosen},
  title     = {{MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo Daily L3 Global - 500m V061}},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center},
  doi       = {10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A3.061}
}

MCD43A4 V061 (NBAR, 500 m) — DOI 10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A4.061

@misc{mcd43a4_v061,
  author    = {Schaaf, Crystal and Wang, Zhuosen},
  title     = {{MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo Nadir BRDF Adjusted Ref Daily L3 Global - 500m V061}},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center},
  doi       = {10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A4.061}
}

MCD43C3 V061 (albedo, 0.05° CMG) — DOI 10.5067/MODIS/MCD43C3.061

@misc{mcd43c3_v061,
  author    = {Schaaf, Crystal and Wang, Zhuosen},
  title     = {{MODIS/Terra+Aqua BRDF/Albedo Albedo Daily L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V061}},
  year      = {2021},
  publisher = {NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center},
  doi       = {10.5067/MODIS/MCD43C3.061}
}

Reference papers¶

First operational MODIS BRDF/albedo products — DOI 10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00091-3

@article{schaaf2002mcd43,
  author  = {Schaaf, Crystal B. and Gao, Feng and Strahler, Alan H. and Lucht, Wolfgang and Li, Xiaowen and Tsang, Trevor and Strugnell, Nicholas C. and Zhang, Xiaoyang and Jin, Yufang and Muller, Jan-Peter and Lewis, Philip and Barnsley, Michael and Hobson, Paul and Disney, Mathias and Roberts, Gareth and Dunderdale, Michael and Doll, Christopher and d'Entremont, Robert P. and Hu, Baoxin and Liang, Shunlin and Privette, Jeffrey L. and Roy, David},
  title   = {First operational {BRDF}, albedo nadir reflectance products from {MODIS}},
  journal = {Remote Sensing of Environment},
  volume  = {83},
  number  = {1-2},
  pages   = {135--148},
  year    = {2002},
  doi     = {10.1016/S0034-4257(02)00091-3}
}

Daily MCD43 in Collection 6 — DOI 10.1016/j.rse.2018.02.001

@article{wang2018mcd43v006,
  author  = {Wang, Zhuosen and Schaaf, Crystal B. and Sun, Qingsong and Shuai, Yanmin and Rom{\'a}n, Miguel O.},
  title   = {Capturing rapid land surface dynamics with Collection {V006} {MODIS} {BRDF/NBAR/Albedo} ({MCD43}) products},
  journal = {Remote Sensing of Environment},
  volume  = {207},
  pages   = {50--64},
  year    = {2018},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.rse.2018.02.001}
}

Acknowledgements¶

LP DAAC asks users to cite each product with the citation given on its DOI landing page. Cite the DOI of every product you actually used (A1, A2, A3, A4, C1–C4, D, GF) with your access date. For the method, cite Schaaf et al. (2002) together with Wang et al. (2018), which describes the daily Collection 6 retrievals.

Information on the datasets used in this study was compiled with the help of the Korean Climate Data Navigator (KCDN) (Sim, 2026; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23300923).

Links¶

• MODIS BRDF/Albedo User Guide (V006 and V006.1, UMass Boston)
• MCD43 Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD)
• LAADS file specification — MCD43A3 V061
• MODIS Land validation status (MCD43)
• LDOPE quality site (known issues, manoeuvres)
• MODIS Land News (Terra/Aqua end of mission, Collection 7 plans)