Other Names

R

Definition

The ratio of reflected radiation to incident radiation on a surface. The suffix (-ance) implies a property of a particular type of surface.
Virtually all remote sensing measurements in the visible range can be converted to reflectance, which is a standard optical property related to the substance or surface from which light is reflected. Because reflectance can be wavelength-specific due to absorption and scattering, reflectance is a key and basic quantity in using remote sensing to determine the identity of anything that reflects light.

Applications

(1) Earth radiation budget	(3) Land surface cover
(2) Ocean optics	(4) Atmospheric dynamics

Spectrum

Visible (400-700 nm)

GES DISC Datasets

Quick Search for 'Reflectance' with Mirador
Click on the corresponding 'WHOM access' links in the table below to access products containing specific parameter.

Parameter	Units	Platform /Instrument	Data
			Begin Date	End Date	WHOM Access	Doc
Reflectance at ground pixel resolution	None	Aqua/AIRS	2002-08-30	Current	AIRX2SUP.005	Y
					AIRH2SUP.005	Y
					AIRX2RET.005	Y
					AIRH2RET.005	Y
		Aura/OMI	2004-08-15	Current	OMTO3.003	Y
		Earth Probe/TOMS	1996-07-25	2005-12-31	TOMSEPL2	Y
		Nimbus-7/TOMS	1978-11-01	1993-05-06	TOMSN7L2	Y
Reflectance (Global Gridded Daily/Weekly/Monthly Averages)	None	Aqua/AIRS	2002-08-30	Current	AIRL3.005	Y
		Aura/OMI	2004-08-15	Current	OMTO3D.003	Y