A Global Land Surface Reflectance for Use in MODISLand Algorithms

Principal Investigator:

The NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument provides a global and improved source of information for the study of the land surface with a spatial resolution of up to 250m. Prior to the derivation of various biophysical parameters based on the surface reflectance, the top of the atmosphere signals need to be radiometrically calibrated and corrected for atmospheric effects. The focus of this research is on establishing techniques that are used for operational atmospheric correction of MODIS bands 1 through 7, centered at 648nm, 858nm, 470nm, 555nm, 1240nm, 1640nm, 2130nm, respectively. Previous operational correction schemes have assumed a standard atmosphere with zero or constant aerosol loading and a uniform, Lambertian surface. The MODIS operational atmospheric correction algorithm, uses aerosol and water vapor information derived from the MODIS data, corrects for adjacency effects and takes into account the directional properties of the observed surface.