Five years (2000-2004) of spatially complete snow-free land surface albedo data have been produced using high-quality flagged diffuse bihemispherical (white-sky) and direct-beam directional hemispherical (black-sky) land surface albedo data derived from observations taken by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite platform (MOD43B3, collection 4). In addition, a spatially complete snow-free aggregate albedo climatology product was generated. These spatially complete products were prepared using an ecosystem-dependant temporal interpolation technique that retrieves missing data within 3-8% error.

These datasets have already been integrated into research and operational projects that require snow-free land surface albedo. As such, this paper provides details regarding the spatial and temporal distribution of filled versus original MOD43B3 data. The paper also explores the intra- and interannual variation in the five-year data record and provides a qualitative comparison of zonal averages and annual cycles of filled versus original MOD43B3 data.

The analyses emphasize the data’s inter- and intraannual variation and show the filled data to exhibit qualitatively similar large- and small-scale phenological behavior to the original MOD43B3. These analyses thereby serve to showcase the inherent spectral, spatial, and temporal variability in the MOD43B3 data as well as the ability of the fill technique to preserve these unique regional and pixel-level phenological characteristics.