Statistical comparison of MISR, ETMz and MODIS land surface reflectance and albedo products of the BARC land validation core site, USA

The Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra satellite are crucial for generation of other products such as the Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FPAR) and Leaf Area Index (LAI). The analysis reported here compares the reflectance and albedo products from MODIS (MOD09 and MOD43B3), MISR and Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM)z data using general statistical methods. Four MISR land surface products are examined: hemispherical–directional reflectance factors (HDRF), bidirectional reflectance factors (BRF), bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR) and directional–hemispherical reflectance (DHR). Ground measurements were used to validate ETMz reflectance and albedo products (30 m) which were then upscaled and compared with MISR products (1.1 km). The results from 11 May 2000, 5 December 2000 and 22 January 2001 show that: (1) under clear-sky conditions, MISR BRF and HDRF, BHR and DHR are nearly the same (Rw99%); (2) there are strong correlations between ETMz surface reflectance and MISR nadir-view BRF; however, the relationship is affected by the cloud, snow and shadow; (3) in clear areas, MISR BRF is similar to MOD09, but is greater for the haze and snow regions and smaller for shadows; and (4) the MISR albedo product is closely related to the ETMz and, to a lesser extent, MODIS.