Monthly-averaged maps of surface BRDF parameters in ten spectral bands for land and water masses

Abstract

The construction of worldwide maps of surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) parameters is presented. The original data stems from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the USA which is making available maps of BRDF parameters that are derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. The first parameter fiso describes the isotropic part of the BRDF while the two others fvol and fgeo 10 describe the anisotropic part and are linked to the viewing and illuminating geometry. The original data has been averaged for each calendar month for the period 2004-2011 and a spatial completion of data was performed, especially in water-covered areas. The resulting complete maps are available in ten spectral bands: [459-479] nm, [545-565]