Bihemispherical Reflectance Research Articles

Optical and biogeochemical properties of diverse Belgian inland and coastal waters

Abstract. From 2017 to 2019, an extensive sampling campaign was conducted in Belgian inland and coastal waters, aimed at providing paired data of optical and biogeochemical properties to support research into optical monitoring of aquatic systems. The campaign was focused on inland waters, with sampling of four lakes and a coastal lagoon during the growth season, in addition to samples of opportunity from other four lakes. Campaigns also included the Scheldt estuary over a tidal cycle and two sampling campaigns in the Belgian coastal zone. Measured parameters include inherent optical properties (absorption, scattering and beam attenuation coefficients, near-forward volume scattering function, turbidity), apparent optical properties (Secchi disc depth, substrate and water-leaving Lambert-equivalent bi-hemispherical reflectance), and biogeochemical properties (suspended particulate matter, mineral fraction of particle mass, particle size distribution, pigment concentration, DNA metabarcoding, flow microscopy counts, and bottom type classification). The diversity of water bodies and environmental conditions covered a wide range of system states. The chlorophyll a concentration varied from 0.63 to 382.72 mg m−3, while the suspended particulate matter concentration varied from 1.02 to 791.19 g m−3, with mineral fraction varying from 0 to 0.95. Depending on system and season, phytoplankton assemblages were dominated by cyanobacteria, green algae (Mamiellophyceae, Pyramimonadophyceae), or diatoms. The dataset is available from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940240 (Castagna et al., 2022).

Divergence of apparent and intrinsic snow albedo over a season at a sub-alpine site with implications for remote sensing

Abstract. Intrinsic albedo is the bihemispherical reflectance independent of effects of topography or surface roughness. Conversely, the apparent albedo is the reflected radiation divided by the incident and may be affected by topography or roughness. For snow, the surface is often rough, and these two optical quantities have different uses: intrinsic albedo is used in scattering equations whereas apparent albedo should be used in energy balance models. Complementing numerous studies devoted to surface roughness and its effect on snow reflectance, this work analyzes a time series of intrinsic and apparent snow albedos over a season at a sub-alpine site using an automated terrestrial laser scanner to map the snow surface topography. An updated albedo model accounts for shade, and in situ albedo measurements from a field spectrometer are compared to those from a spaceborne multispectral sensor. A spectral unmixing approach using a shade endmember (to address the common problem of unknown surface topography) produces grain size and impurity solutions; the modeled shade fraction is compared to the intrinsic and apparent albedo difference. As expected and consistent with other studies, the results show that intrinsic albedo is consistently greater than apparent albedo. Both albedos decrease rapidly as ablation hollows form during melt, combining effects of impurities on the surface and increasing roughness. Intrinsic broadband albedos average 0.056 greater than apparent albedos, with the difference being 0.052 in the near infrared or 0.022 if the average (planar) topography is known and corrected. Field measurements of spectral surface reflectance confirm that multispectral sensors see the apparent albedo but lack the spectral resolution to distinguish between darkening from ablation hollows versus low concentrations of impurities. In contrast, measurements from the field spectrometer have sufficient resolution to discern darkening from the two sources. Based on these results, conclusions are as follows: (1) impurity estimates from multispectral sensors are only reliable for relatively dirty snow with high snow fraction; (2) a shade endmember must be used in spectral mixture models, even for in situ spectroscopic measurements; and (3) snow albedo models should produce apparent albedos by accounting for the shade fraction. The conclusion re-iterates that albedo is the most practical snow reflectance quantity for remote sensing.

Bi-hemispherical Canopy Reflectance Model with Surface Heterogeneity Effects for the Estimation of LAI and fAPAR from MODIS White-Sky Spectral Albedo Data

Bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR), in the land surface research community also known as “white-sky albedo”, is independent of the directions of incidence and viewing. For vegetation canopies, it is also nearly independent of the leaf angle distribution, and therefore it can be considered an optical quantity that is only dependent on material properties. For the combination leaf canopy and soil background, the most influential material properties are the canopy LAI (leaf area index), optical properties of the leaves, and soil brightness. When the leaf and soil optical properties are known or assumed, one may estimate the canopy LAI from its white-sky spectral albedo. This is also because a simple two-stream radiative transfer (RT) model is available for the BHR of the leaf canopy and soil combination. In this contribution, crown clumping and lateral linear mixing effects are incorporated in this model. A new procedure to estimate soil brightness is introduced here, even under a moderate layer of green vegetation. The procedure uses the red and NIR spectral bands. A MODIS white-sky albedo product at a spatial resolution of 0.05° is used as a sample input to derive global maps of LAI, soil brightness, and fAPAR at the local moments of minimum and maximum NDVI over a 20-year period. These maps show a high degree of spatial coherence and demonstrate the possible utility of products that can be generated with little effort by using a direct LUT technique.

In-Situ and Aircraft Reflectance Measurement Effectiveness for CAL/VAL Activities: A Study over Railroad Valley

This paper aims to assess the relationship between the surface reflectance derived from ground based and aircraft measurements. The parameters of the Rahman–Pinty–Verstraete (RPV) and Ross Thick-LiSparse (RTLS) kernel based bi-directional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF), have been derived using actual measurements of the hemispherical-directional reflectance factor (HDRF), collected during different campaigns over the Railroad Valley Playa. The effect of the atmosphere, including that of the diffuse radiation on bi-directional reflectance factor (BRF) parameter retrievals, assessed using 6S model simulations, was negligible for the low turbidity conditions of the site under investigation (τ550≤0.05). It was also shown that the effects of the diffuse radiation on RPV spectral parameters retrieval is linear for the isotropic parameter ρ0 and the scattering parameter Θ, and can be described with a second order polynomial for the k-Minnaert parameter. In order to overcome the lack of temporal collocations between aircraft and in-situ measurements, Monte Carlo 3-D radiative transfer simulations mimicking in-situ and remote sensing techniques were performed on a synthetic parametric meshed scene defined by merging Landsat and Multianglhe Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) remote sensing reflectance data. We simulated directional reflectance measurements made at different heights for PARABOLA and CAR, and analyzed them according to practices adopted for real measurements, consisting of the inversion of BRF functions and the calculation of the bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR). The difference of retrievals against the known benchmarks of kernel parameters and BHR is presented. We associated an uncertainty of up to 2% with the retrieval of area averaged BHR, independently of flight altitudes and the BRF model used for the inversion. As expected, the local nature of PARABOLA data is revealed by the difference of the anisotropic kernel parameters with the corresponding parameters retrieved from aircraft loops. The uncertainty of the resultant BHR fell within ±3%.

Validation of Space-Based Albedo Products from Upscaled Tower-Based Measurements Over Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Landscapes

Surface albedo is a fundamental radiative parameter as it controls the Earth’s energy budget and directly affects the Earth’s climate. Satellite observations have long been used to capture the temporal and spatial variations of surface albedo because of their continuous global coverage. However, space-based albedo products are often affected by errors in the atmospheric correction, multi-angular bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) modelling, as well as spectral conversions. To validate space-based albedo products, an in situ tower albedometer is often used to provide continuous “ground truth” measurements of surface albedo over an extended area. Since space-based albedo and tower-measured albedo are produced at different spatial scales, they can be directly compared only for specific homogeneous land surfaces. However, most land surfaces are inherently heterogeneous with surface properties that vary over a wide range of spatial scales. In this work, tower-measured albedo products, including both directional hemispherical reflectance (DHR) and bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR), are upscaled to coarse satellite spatial resolutions using a new method. This strategy uses high-resolution satellite derived surface albedos to fill the gaps between the albedometer’s field-of-view (FoV) and coarse satellite scales. The high-resolution surface albedo is generated from a combination of surface reflectance retrieved from high-resolution Earth Observation (HR-EO) data and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) BRDF climatology over a larger area. We implemented a recently developed atmospheric correction method, the Sensor Invariant Atmospheric Correction (SIAC), to retrieve surface reflectance from HR-EO (e.g., Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8) top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance measurements. This SIAC processing provides an estimated uncertainty for the retrieved surface spectral reflectance at the HR-EO pixel level and shows excellent agreement with the standard Landsat 8 Surface Reflectance Code (LaSRC) in retrieving Landsat-8 surface reflectance. Atmospheric correction of Sentinel-2 data is vastly improved by SIAC when compared against the use of in situ AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) data. Based on this, we can trace the uncertainty of tower-measured albedo during its propagation through high-resolution EO measurements up to coarse satellite scales. These upscaled albedo products can then be compared with space-based albedo products over heterogeneous land surfaces. In this study, both tower-measured albedo and upscaled albedo products are examined at Ground Based Observation for Validation (GbOV) stations (https://land.copernicus.eu/global/gbov/), and used to compare with satellite observations, including Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS) based on ProbaV and VEGETATION 2 data, MODIS and multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR).

The definition of remotely sensed reflectance quantities suitable for rugged terrain

The anisotropic scattering behavior of land surface is characterized by its bidirectional reflectance-distribution function (BRDF). However, a physically consistent BRDF definition is still lacking for heterogeneous and rugged terrain that accounts for approximately 24% of Earth's land surface. In this study, we revisited current BRDF definitions and updated them for rugged terrain with few dependent parameters: illumination and viewing geometries, terrain shadows, effective areas of illumination and observation, and anisotropic reflectance properties of subpixel-scale slopes. Furthermore, the bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), hemispherical-directional reflectance factor (HDRF), directional-hemispheric reflectance (DHR), and bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR) were proposed within the current physical framework of reflectance quantities. These reflectance quantities have been adopted by the 3-D Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model to provide the simulations of remote sensing images. To highlight the importance of a proper usage of such reflectance terms, we used DART simulations to present the topographic effects on these reflectance quantities. Finally, the other issues with respect to surface BRDF/BRF, such as spatial scale of rugged terrain, characterization of anisotropic reflectance of micro-scale surfaces, derivative reflectance quantities, topographic parameters, wavelength dependence and reciprocity, and future perspective were discussed.

Intercomparison of Surface Albedo Retrievals from MISR, MODIS, CGLS Using Tower and Upscaled Tower Measurements

Surface albedo is of crucial interest in land–climate interaction studies, since it is a key parameter that affects the Earth’s radiation budget. The temporal and spatial variation of surface albedo can be retrieved from conventional satellite observations after a series of processes, including atmospheric correction to surface spectral bi-directional reflectance factor (BRF), bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) modelling using these BRFs, and, where required, narrow-to-broadband albedo conversions. This processing chain introduces errors that can be accumulated and then affect the accuracy of the retrieved albedo products. In this study, the albedo products derived from the multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR), moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Copernicus Global Land Service (CGLS), based on the VEGETATION and now the PROBA-V sensors, are compared with albedometer and upscaled in situ measurements from 19 tower sites from the FLUXNET network, surface radiation budget network (SURFRAD) and Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) networks. The MISR sensor onboard the Terra satellite has 9 cameras at different view angles, which allows a near-simultaneous retrieval of surface albedo. Using a 16-day retrieval algorithm, the MODIS generates the daily albedo products (MCD43A) at a 500-m resolution. The CGLS albedo products are derived from the VEGETATION and PROBA-V, and updated every 10 days using a weighted 30-day window. We describe a newly developed method to derive the two types of albedo, which are directional hemispherical reflectance (DHR) and bi-hemispherical reflectance (BHR), directly from three tower-measured variables of shortwave radiation: downwelling, upwelling and diffuse shortwave radiation. In the validation process, the MISR, MODIS and CGLS-derived albedos (DHR and BHR) are first compared with tower measured albedos, using pixel-to-point analysis, between 2012 to 2016. The tower measured point albedos are then upscaled to coarse-resolution albedos, based on atmospherically corrected BRFs from high-resolution Earth observation (HR-EO) data, alongside MODIS BRDF climatology from a larger area. Then a pixel-to-pixel comparison is performed between DHR and BHR retrieved from coarse-resolution satellite observations and DHR and BHR upscaled from accurate tower measurements. The experimental results are presented on exploring the parameter space associated with land cover type, heterogeneous vs. homogeneous and instantaneous vs. time composite retrievals of surface albedo.

Measurement of the absolute reflectance of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) immersed in liquid xenon

The performance of a detector using liquid xenon (LXe) as a scintillator is strongly dependent on the collection efficiency for xenon scintillation light, which in turn is critically dependent on the reflectance of the surfaces that surround the active volume. To improve the light collection in such detectors the active volume is usually surrounded by polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) reflector panels, used due to its very high reflectance—even at the short wavelength of scintillation light of LXe (peaked at 178 nm). In this work, which contributed to the overall R&D effort towards the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, we present experimental results for the absolute reflectance measurements of three different PTFE samples (including the material used in the LUX detector) immersed in LXe for its scintillation light. The obtained results show that very high bi-hemispherical reflectance values (⩾ 97%) can be achieved, enabling very low energy thresholds in liquid xenon scintillator-based detectors.

Reflective properties of white sea ice and snow

Abstract. White ice (ice with a highly scattering granular layer on top of its surface) and snow-covered ice occupy a large part of the sea ice area in the Arctic, the former in summer, the latter in the cold period. The inherent optical properties (IOPs) and the reflectance of these types of ice are considered from the point of view of the light scattering and radiative transfer theories. The IOPs – the extinction and absorption coefficients and the scattering phase function – are derived with the assumption that both the snow cover and the scattering layer of white ice are random mixtures of air and ice with the characteristic grain size significantly larger than the wavelength of incident light. Simple analytical formulas are put forward to calculate the bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF), albedo at direct incidence (the directional–hemispherical reflectance), and albedo at diffuse incidence (the bihemispherical reflectance). The optical model developed is verified with the data of the in situ measurements made during the R/V Polarstern expedition ARK-XXVII/3 in 2012.

<roman><italic>In Situ</italic></roman> Calibration of Light Sensors for Long-Term Monitoring of Vegetation

Light sensors are increasingly used to monitor vegetation growing status by measuring reflectance or transmittance in multispectral or photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) bands. The measurements are then used to estimate vegetation indices or the fraction of absorbed PAR (FPAR) in a continuous and long-term manner and to serve as inputs to environmental monitoring and calibration/validation data for satellite remote sensing. However, light-sensor calibration is often overlooked or not properly attended to, which leads to difficulties when comparing the measurement results across sites and through time. In this paper, we investigate a practical and accurate user-level in situ calibration method in daylight. The calibration of a sensor pair is made for measuring either bihemispherical reflectance or hemispherical–conical reflectance, which are the two most common ground-based spectral measurements. Procedures and considerations are suggested for user calibration. We also provide a method for calibrating and measuring a single-sensor reflectance-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from red and near-infrared bands. The calibration error propagation is analyzed, and the induced uncertainties in vegetation reflectance and in the NDVI are evaluated. The analysis and field measurements show that the NDVI estimated from a user calibration factor can be as accurate as, or even more accurate than, the manufacturer's calibration. The in situ calibration described here remedies the situation where reflectance for large field-of-view sensors cannot be always estimated from the manufacturer's calibration. The method developed in this paper may help improve the reliability of long-term field spectral measurements and contributes to the near-surface remote sensing of vegetation.

Global analysis of radiative forcing from fire-induced shortwave albedo change

Abstract. Land surface albedo, a key parameter to derive Earth's surface energy balance, is used in the parameterization of numerical weather prediction, climate monitoring and climate change impact assessments. Changes in albedo due to fire have not been fully investigated on a continental and global scale. The main goal of this study, therefore, is to quantify the changes in instantaneous shortwave albedo produced by biomass burning activities and their associated radiative forcing. The study relies on the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) MCD64A1 burned-area product to create an annual composite of areas affected by fire and the MCD43C2 bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) albedo snow-free product to compute a bihemispherical reflectance time series. The approximate day of burning is used to calculate the instantaneous change in shortwave albedo. Using the corresponding National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) monthly mean downward solar radiation flux at the surface, the global radiative forcing associated with fire was computed. The analysis reveals a mean decrease in shortwave albedo of −0.014 (1σ = 0.017), causing a mean positive radiative forcing of 3.99 Wm−2 (1σ = 4.89) over the 2002–20012 time period in areas affected by fire. The greatest drop in mean shortwave albedo change occurs in 2002, which corresponds to the highest total area burned (378 Mha) observed in the same year and produces the highest mean radiative forcing (4.5 Wm−2). Africa is the main contributor in terms of burned area, but forests globally give the highest radiative forcing per unit area and thus give detectable changes in shortwave albedo. The global mean radiative forcing for the whole period studied (~0.0275 Wm−2) shows that the contribution of fires to the Earth system is not insignificant.

Angle-dependent ray tracing simulations of reflections on pyramidal textures for silicon solar cells

Pyramidal textures are commonly used to reduce reflections from silicon solar cells and improve light absorption by light trapping. They are generally modelled or characterised under normal incidence. In this work, a monolayer 3D ray tracing program taking into account the polarisation of light have been developed, validated and used to compute the directional-hemispherical reflectance versus the azimuth and incidence angles for both regular upright pyramids and inverted ones, with (111) facets. Results are given for a wavelength of 0.7μm. They show that this reflectance is not minimal at normal incidence but for an incidence angle near 20° and that upright pyramids can have a lower hemispherical reflectance than inverted ones for incidence angles in the middle range. The bihemispherical reflectance is 19.6% for regular upright pyramids and 20.7% for inverted ones. The effect of the pyramids aspect ratio on the hemispherical reflectance at normal incidence is also studied. This reflectance decreases with the aspect ratio of both textures. Above an aspect ratio of 0.51, inverted pyramids have a lower hemispherical reflectance. But their bihemispherical reflectance is lower only for aspect ratios below 0.23.

Hemispherical-directional reflectance factor measurements of snow on the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Radiation, Snow Characteristics and Albedo at Summit (RASCALS) campaign

During the summer of 2010 a snow measurement campaign was carried out at Greenland Environmental Observatory, on Greenland Ice Sheet. Broadband snow albedo (bihemispherical reflectance), spectral hemispherical conical reflectance factor, temperature, density and other physical parameters were measured. Especially, the Hemispherical Directional Reflectance Factor (HDRF) of 46 snow samples was measured using the Finnish Geodetic Institute Field Goniospectrometer (FIGIFIGO). Additionally, linear polarization (Stokes parameters I, Q, and U), or Muller matrix elements R11, R12, and R13, were measured from some samples. Albedo was also calculated from the HDRF and these values were compared to those from the albedometer. Values were found to be within 3% of each other, which is within the accuracy limits of the instruments. We also compared our results to previous measurements at the Summit (by Bourgeois et al. during 2005 and Carmagnola et al. during 2011) and found our results to be in agreement with their measurements. Compared to previous studies, our measurements have full solar spectrum spectral coverage and linear polarization.

Thermal radiation transmission and reflection properties of ceramic 3D photonic crystals

The infrared (IR) transmission and reflection properties of the ceramic thermal barrier coatings have great implications on the overall performance of a component operated at high temperatures, where a significant amount of heat from external IR radiation will propagate through the coating toward the underlying substrate. A high-temperature photonic structure can be used to limit this radiation transport while operating at temperatures above 1000 °C. Herein, we present the concept of a broadband and angle-insensitive IR reflector, based on 3D photonic crystals (PhCs) that consists of a ceramic material with high thermal stability and low thermal conductivity. We numerically demonstrate that the multistack ceramic 3D PhCs can provide >80% of bi-hemispherical reflectance in the wavelength region of 1–5 μm.

Variability in surface BRDF at different spatial scales (30 m–500 m) over a mixed agricultural landscape as retrieved from airborne and satellite spectral measurements

Over the past decade, the role of multiangle remote sensing has been central to the development of algorithms for the retrieval of global land surface properties including models of the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), albedo, land cover/dynamics, burned area extent, as well as other key surface biophysical quantities impacted by the anisotropic reflectance characteristics of vegetation. In this study, a new retrieval strategy for fine-to-moderate resolution multiangle observations was developed, based on the operational sequence used to retrieve the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Collection 5 reflectance and BRDF/albedo products. The algorithm makes use of a semiempirical kernel-driven bidirectional reflectance model to provide estimates of intrinsic albedo (i.e., directional-hemispherical reflectance and bihemispherical reflectance), model parameters describing the BRDF, and extensive quality assurance information. The new retrieval strategy was applied to NASA's Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) data acquired during the 2007 Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC) over the well-instrumented Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site in Oklahoma, USA. For the case analyzed, we obtained ~ 1.6 million individual surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) retrievals, from nadir to 75° off-nadir, and at spatial resolutions ranging from 3 m to 500 m. This unique dataset was used to examine the interaction of the spatial and angular characteristics of a mixed agricultural landscape; and provided the basis for detailed assessments of: (1) the use of a land cover type-specific a priori knowledge in kernel-driven BRDF model inversions; (2) the interaction between surface reflectance anisotropy and instrument spatial resolution; and (3) the uncertainties that arise when sub-pixel differences in the BRDF are aggregated to a moderate resolution satellite pixel. Results offer empirical evidence concerning the influence of scale and spatial heterogeneity in kernel-driven BRDF models; providing potential new insights into the behavior and characteristics of different surface radiative properties related to land/use cover change and vegetation structure.

Impact of Soil Microstructure Geometry on DRIFT Spectra: Comparisons with Beam Trace Modeling

Fourier‐transformed infrared spectroscopy in diffuse reflectance mode (DRIFT) has been proposed as a tool for the characterization of organic matter (OM) composition at intact soil surfaces; however, the local properties and the geometry of intact structural surfaces (e.g., biopores and cracks) affect the reflection in as yet unknown ways. Our goal was to develop an approach to correct for surface geometry effects. The objectives were to analyze the effects of (i) particle size, (ii) porosity, and (iii) specific surface shapes on the infrared signal intensity by comparing measured with simulated reflectance data. Mid‐infrared DRIFT spectra were obtained from differently textured quartz samples and from gypsum blocks with defined surface shapes as models for soil porous systems. A beam tracing model (BTM) was used for the numerical description of the infrared beam propagation in such model soils. The measured DRIFT signal intensity and the simulated bihemispherical reflectance both decreased with increasing quartz particle size; the resolution of the DRIFT spectra decreased with particle size. The geometric effects of the microtopography can be explained by the local variations in the distance between the collection mirror of the DRIFT device and the sample surface. The DRIFT‐measured effects of particle size and surface topography on the signal intensity agreed with the BTM simulation results. The results suggest that a radiative transfer model is useful for interpretations of DRIFT data obtained at intact structural surfaces. The OM properties can be analyzed with DRIFT for surfaces that consist of particles <70 μm and have relatively small, i.e., <1‐mm, relief differences.

Comparing Operational MSG/SEVIRI Land Surface Albedo Products From Land SAF With Ground Measurements and MODIS

This study is devoted to an assessment of the quality performance of the Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (LSA-SAF) albedo products, which are generated from the high frequency of observations now offered by the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) geostationary satellite series. Land surface albedo products are compared against in situ measurements and the analogous products from the Collection 4 of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) in domains in European and Northern African regions. We find a good consistency with MODIS broadband shortwave and near-infrared directional-hemispherical reflectance (DHR) over midlatitude regions. Comparative statistics indicate biases below 0.01 in absolute and 5% in relative terms, and an average root-mean-square error (RMSE) around 0.03 for all situations, including in snow cases. The comparison for shortwave bihemispherical reflectance (BHR) shows an even better match over herbaceous cover with respective values for bias and RMSE of 0.007 and 0.012. Broadband visible BHR from LSA-SAF overestimates MODIS equivalent albedo product by 20%, which seems to be caused by remaining uncertainties in narrowband-to-broadband conversion, residual aerosol signals, and the use of a different bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model. The commendable statistical results obtained over bright desert targets such as Northern Africa are worth noticing. Assuming that the MODIS product is a good reference, a relative bias of 10% can be judged satisfactory for the LSA-SAF snow-free broadband DHR values. In addition, quarter-hourly MSG observations better capture snow episodes, although some discrepancies appear for areas with high vegetation cover.

Comparison of MISR and MODIS land surface albedos: Methodology

The broadband white sky surface albedo (bihemispherical reflectance) products available from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are compared at regional and continental scales with similar products generated from the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) land surface bidirectional reflectance factor (BRF) parameters. This paper describes the methodology applied to derive MISR white sky albedos over four spectral broadbands of interest, namely, 0.3–0.7 μm, 0.4–1.1 μm, 0.7–3.0 μm, and 0.3–3.0 μm, as well as an evaluation of the strategy adopted to compare the MODIS and MISR products. The results are very encouraging since the two data sets show very good statistical agreement over large areas and over a full year of measurements, despite the many differences that exist in the suite of algorithms applied to retrieve these surface quantities from each of these instruments separately.

Joint retrieval of surface reflectance and aerosol optical depth from MSG/SEVIRI observations with an optimal estimation approach: 2. Implementation and evaluation

An original method, based on optimal estimation, was presented in a part one of this paper for the joint retrieval of the mean daily total column aerosol optical depth and the surface Bidirectional Reflectance Factor (BRF) from the daily accumulated Meteosat Second Generation–Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (MSG/SEVIRI) observations in the solar channels. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the benefits of the proposed approach and to document the limits of the algorithm assumptions in the context of its implementation in an operational ground segment. A twofold approach is followed. In a first step, by looking at the posterior correlation error matrix the capability of the so‐called Land Daily Aerosol (LDA) algorithm to decouple the surface‐atmosphere signal is analyzed. In particular, the impact of the prior information is investigated in detail. In a second step, the results of the algorithm are compared with independent data sets of aerosol optical depth and surface reflectance. In this phase, the accuracy of the algorithm is evaluated against ground observations from the AERONET network. LDA is shown to be in good agreement with these data, especially when the prior update mechanism is activated. Comparisons with the MODIS surface product showed that the bihemispherical reflectance derived from the LDA products is consistent with the equivalent MODIS white‐sky albedo. Aerosol spatial distributions are comparable in terms of geographical location and intensity, in particular for aerosol episodes with a limited daily variation.

Quantifying aerosol direct radiative effect with Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer observations: Top‐of‐atmosphere albedo change by aerosols based on land surface types

Using internally consistent albedo, aerosol, cloud, and surface data from the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument onboard the Terra satellite, top‐of‐atmosphere (TOA) spectral albedo change (dα) in the presence of aerosols over land is estimated and its dependence on aerosol and surface properties is analyzed. Linear regressions between spectral TOA albedo and aerosol optical depth (AOD) for different surface types are examined to derive the aerosol‐free TOA albedo. MISR surface BiHemispherical Reflectance (BHR) values are used to differentiate surface types. We find relatively high correlations between spectral TOA albedo and AOD for BHR‐stratified data in 2° × 2° grid cells. The global mean values of cloud‐free dα over land for June–September 2007 are estimated to be 0.018 ± 0.003 (blue), 0.010 ± 0.003 (green), 0.007 ± 0.003 (red), and 0.008 ± 0.006 (near‐infrared). Individual regions show large variations from these values. Global patterns of dα are determined mainly by AOD and aerosol radiative efficiency. Large positive values of dα are observed over regions with high aerosol loading and large single‐scattering albedo, where the aerosol scattering effect is dominant. The presence of light‐absorbing aerosols reduces aerosol radiative efficiency and dα. Surface reflectance influences both aerosol scattering and absorbing effects. Generally, the aerosol radiative efficiency decreases with increasing BHR. We also examined dα‐AOD correlations over different vegetation types. We find the smallest dα values are over needleleaf forests and shrublands, whereas the largest values are over cropland and barren regions. The aerosol radiative efficiencies are lowest over needleleaf forests and barren regions and highest over grasslands and croplands.