ABoVE: MODIS-Derived Daily Mean Blue Sky Albedo for Northern North America, 2000-2017

This dataset contains MODIS-derived daily mean shortwave blue sky albedo for northern North America (i.e., Canada and Alaska) and a set of quality control flags for each albedo value to aid in user interpretation. The data cover the period of February 24, 2000 through April 22, 2017. The blue sky albedo data were derived from the MODIS 500-m version 6 Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function and Albedo (BRDF/Albedo) Model Parameters MCD43A1 dataset (MCD43A1.006, https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD43A1.006) (Schaaf & Wang, 2015a, please refer to the MCD43 documentation and user guides for more information). Blue sky refers to albedo calculated under real-world conditions with a combination of both diffuse and direct lighting based on atmospheric and view-geometry conditions. Daily mean albedo was calculated by averaging hourly instantaneous blue sky albedo values weighted by the solar insolation for each time interval. Potter et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14888) is the associated paper for this dataset. Note the actual extent of the dataset in Figure 1 of the User Guide. Users are encouraged to refer to the User Guide for further important information about the use of this dataset.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated September 15, 2026, 03:39 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 14:07 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 1a68c552-f4af-41f3-af16-059284b5b3ba
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1605
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-09-07T22:16:02Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 25134b97ac236a491c9267ad7164e37c3a223b07aec54022e3978100ca5bdf2e
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"WestBoundingCoordinate": -173.089, "NorthBoundingCoordinate": 79.0819, "EastBoundingCoordinate": -52.6184, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": 41.6809}]]
temporal 2000-02-24/2017-04-22
theme {"Earth Science"}