Zhuosen Wang

Land and cryosphere products from Suomi NPP VIIRS: Overview and status

[1] The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument was launched in October 2011 as part of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (S-NPP). The VIIRS instrument was designed to improve upon the capabilities of the operational Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and provide observation continuity with NASA’s Earth Observing System’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). Since the VIIRS first-light images were received in November 2011, NASA- and NOAA-funded scientists have been working to evaluate the instrument performance and generate land and cryosphere products to meet the needs of the NOAA operational users and the NASA science community. NOAA’s focus has been on refining a suite of operational products known as Environmental Data Records (EDRs), which were developed according to project specifications under the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System. The NASA S-NPP Science Team has focused on evaluating the EDRs for science use, developing and testing additional products to meet science data needs, and providing MODIS data product continuity. This paper presents to-date findings of the NASA Science Team’s evaluation of the VIIRS land and cryosphere EDRs, specifically Surface Reflectance, Land Surface Temperature, Surface Albedo, Vegetation Indices, Surface Type, Active Fires, Snow Cover, Ice Surface Temperature, and Sea Ice Characterization. The study concludes that, for MODIS data product continuity and earth system science, an enhanced suite of land and cryosphere products and associated data system capabilities are needed beyond the EDRs currently available from the VIIRS.

Use of In Situ and Airborne Multiangle Data to Assess MODIS- and Landsat-Based Estimates of Directional Reflectance and Albedo

The quantification of uncertainty in satellite-derived global surface albedo products is a critical aspect in producing complete, physically consistent, and decadal land property data records for studying ecosystem change. A challenge in validating albedo measurements acquired from space is the ability to overcome the spatial scaling errors that can produce disagreements between satellite and field-measured values. Here, we present the results from an accuracy assessment of MODIS and Landsat-TM albedo retrievals, based on collocated comparisons with tower and airborne Cloud Absorption Radiometer (CAR) measurements collected during the 2007 Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC). The initial focus was on evaluating inter-sensor consistency through comparisons of intrinsic bidirectional reflectance estimates. Local and regional assessments were then performed to obtain estimates of the resulting scaling uncertainties, and to establish the accuracy of albedo reconstructions during extended periods of precipitation. In general, the satellite-derived estimates met the accuracy requirements established for the high-quality MODIS operational albedos at 500 m (the greater of 0.02 units or ±10% of surface measured values). However, results reveal a high degree of variability in the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and bias of MODIS visible (0.3-0.7 μm) and Landsat-TM shortwave (0.3-5.0 μm) albedos; where, in some cases, retrieval uncertainties were found to be in excess of 15 %. Results suggest that an overall improvement in MODIS shortwave albedo retrieval accuracy of 7.8%, based on comparisons between MODIS and CAR albedos, resulted from the removal of sub-grid scale mismatch errors when directly scaling-up the tower measurements to the MODIS satellite footprint.

Imaging riometer and HF radar measurements of drifting F region electron density structures in the polar cap

A study of riometer, photometer, and ionosonde data from South Pole Station has revealed a class of unusual dayside absorption events which occur near local magnetic noon when South Pole is located poleward of the dayside cusp. These events, which can reach values in excess of 1 dB in narrow-beam 38.2-MHz riometer measurements, are accompanied by significant enhancement of the O(¹D2) 630.0-nm emission. However, because there is no corresponding change in the N2+ 427.8-nm emission, it is unlikely that these events are caused by the conventional D or lower E region ionization increases usually attributed to the precipitation of auroral electrons of keV energy. Rather, the comparison of South Pole imaging riometer and ionosonde data with simultaneous Halley PACE HF radar data suggests that these unusual absorption events are related to F region electron density structures drifting from the dayside oval into the polar cap. If further work sustains this interpretation, then new prospects will be opened up for using imaging riometers to examine aspects of polar cap convection.

Daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast DB products for monitoring vegetation phenology dynamics

Land surface vegetation phenology is an efficient bio-indicator for monitoring ecosystem variation in response to changes in climatic factors. The primary objective of the current article is to examine the utility of the daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) product for monitoring the evolution of vegetation phenological trends over selected crop, orchard, and forest regions. Although numerous model-fitted satellite data have been widely used to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of land surface phenological patterns to understand phenological process and phenomena, current efforts to investigate the details of phenological trends, especially for natural phenological variations that occur on short time scales, are less well served by remote sensing challenges and lack of anisotropy correction in satellite data sources. The daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy product is employed to retrieve daily vegetation indices (VI) of a 1 year period for an almond orchard in California and for a winter wheat field in northeast China, as well as a 2 year period for a deciduous forest region in New Hampshire, USA. Compared with the ground records from these regions, the VI trajectories derived from the cloud-free and atmospherically corrected MODIS Nadir BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) adjusted reflectance (NBAR) capture not only the detailed footprint and principal attributes of the phenological events (such as flowering and blooming) but also the substantial inter-annual variability. This study demonstrates the utility of the daily 500 m MODIS reflectance anisotropy DB product to provide daily VI for monitoring and detecting changes of the natural vegetation phenology as exemplified by study regions comprising winter wheat, almond trees, and deciduous forest.

Angular Effects and Correction for Medium Resolution Sensors to Support Crop Monitoring

Remote sensing imagery at medium spatial resolutions (20-60 m) such as Landsat, the advanced wide field sensor (AWiFS) and the disaster monitoring constellation (DMC) have been broadly used in mapping crop types and monitoring crop conditions. This paper examines the influence of viewing and illumination angular effects on surface reflectance of typical surface and crop types for both narrow swath (e.g., Landsat) and wide swath (e.g., AWiFS) sensors. Three types of angular effects: 1) view angle effect; 2) day of year effect; and 3) mean local time drift effect were analyzed based on both field and satellite bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) measurements. In order to correct these angular effects, a BRDF look-up map (LUM) for major cover types was built using the cropland data layer (CDL) and the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) BRDF products. The BRDF LUM was applied to an AWiFS image to correct view angle effects in an agricultural area in central Illinois. The resulting nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance (NBAR) provides a consistent data source for intra-annual crop condition monitoring and inter-annual time-series analysis.

A Cross Comparison of Spatiotemporally Enhanced Springtime Phenological Measurements From Satellites and Ground in a Northern U.S. Mixed Forest

Cross comparison of satellite-derived land surface phenology (LSP) and ground measurements is useful to ensure the relevance of detected seasonal vegetation change to the underlying biophysical processes. While standard 16-day and 250-m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index (VI)-based springtime LSP has been evaluated in previous studies, it remains unclear whether LSP with enhanced temporal and spatial resolutions can capture additional details of ground phenology. In this paper, we compared LSP derived from 500-m daily MODIS and 30-m MODIS-Landsat fused VI data with landscape phenology (LP) in a northern U.S. mixed forest. LP was previously developed from intensively observed deciduous and coniferous tree phenology using an upscaling approach. Results showed that daily MODIS-based LSP consistently estimated greenup onset dates at the study area (625 m × 625 m) level with 4.48 days of mean absolute error (MAE), slightly better than that of using 16-day standard VI (4.63 days MAE). For the observed study areas, the time series with increased number of observations confirmed that post-bud burst deciduous tree phenology contributes the most to vegetation reflectance change. Moreover, fused VI time series demonstrated closer correspondences with LP at the community level (0.1-20 ha) than using MODIS alone at the study area level (390 ha). The fused LSP captured greenup onset dates for respective forest communities of varied sizes and compositions with four days of the overall MAE. This study supports further use of spatiotemporally enhanced LSP for more precise phenological monitoring.

Global albedo change and radiative cooling from anthropogenic land cover change, 1700 to 2005 based on MODIS, land use harmonization, radiative kernels, and reanalysis

Widespread anthropogenic land cover change over the last five centuries has influenced the global climate system through both biogeochemical and biophysical processes. Models indicate that warming from carbon emissions associated with land cover conversion has been partially offset by cooling from elevated albedo, but considerable uncertainty remains partly because of uncertainty in model treatments of albedo. This study incorporates a new spatially and temporally explicit, land cover specific albedo product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer with a historical land use data set (Land Use Harmonization product) to provide more precise, observationally derived estimates of albedo impacts from anthropogenic land cover change with a complete range of data set specific uncertainty. The mean annual global albedo increase due to land cover change during 1700–2005 was estimated as 0.00106 ± 0.00008 (mean ± standard deviation), mainly driven by snow exposure due to land cover transitions from natural vegetation to agriculture. This translates to a top-of-atmosphere radiative cooling of −0.15 ± 0.1 W m−2 (mean ± standard deviation). Our estimate was in the middle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report range of −0.05 to −0.25 W m−2 and incorporates variability in albedo within land cover classes.

Multiscale climatological albedo look-up maps derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer BRDF/albedo products

Abstract Surface albedo determines radiative forcing and is a key parameter for driving Earth’s climate. Better characterization of surface albedo for individual land cover types can reduce the uncertainty in estimating changes to Earth’s radiation balance due to land cover change. This paper presents albedo look-up maps (LUMs) using a multiscale hierarchical approach based on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF)/albedo products and Landsat imagery. Ten years (2001 to 2011) of MODIS BRDF/albedo products were used to generate global albedo climatology. Albedo LUMs of land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) at multiple spatial resolutions were generated. The albedo LUMs included monthly statistics of white-sky (diffuse) and black-sky (direct) albedo for each IGBP class for visible, near-infrared, and shortwave broadband under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions. The albedo LUMs were assessed by using the annual MODIS IGBP land cover map and the projected land use scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change land-use harmonization project. The comparisons between the reconstructed albedo and the MODIS albedo data product show good agreement. The LUMs provide high temporal and spatial resolution global albedo statistics without gaps for investigating albedo variations under different land cover scenarios and could be used for land surface modeling.

Estimating daily mean land surface albedo from MODIS data

Land surface albedo (LSA) is an important component of the surface radiation budget. For calculation of the surface shortwave net radiation budget, temporal mean albedo is more important than instantaneous albedo. Although Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) albedo products have been extensively validated, little effort has been made to evaluate the accuracy of daily mean albedo from MODIS. In this study, we calculate daily mean albedo from MODIS data using a direct method and a look-up table (LUT) method. Comparison with in situ albedo measured at 27 field stations shows that both methods can estimate daily mean albedo with high accuracy. The root-mean-square error (RMSE) of snow-free daily mean albedo retrieved by the LUT method and the direct method is 0.033 and 0.034, respectively. Over the 12 spatially representative stations, RMSE of daily mean albedo is 0.022 and 0.023 by the LUT and direct approach, respectively. Simply using the local noon albedo value as a surrogate of daily mean albedo leads to overestimation of daily shortwave net radiation. By using the data of daily mean albedo, the bias in estimating daily shortwave net radiation can be reduced by 2.8 W/m2 with the direct method and 2.6 W/m2 with the LUT method, compared to the use of local noon albedo.

Early Spring Post-Fire Snow Albedo Dynamics in High Latitude Boreal Forests Using Landsat-8 OLI Data

Taking advantage of the improved radiometric resolution of Landsat-8 OLI which, unlike previous Landsat sensors, does not saturate over snow, the progress of fire recovery progress at the landscape scale (< 100m) is examined. High quality Landsat-8 albedo retrievals can now capture the true reflective and layered character of snow cover over a full range of land surface conditions and vegetation densities. This new capability particularly improves the assessment of post-fire vegetation dynamics across low- to high- burn severity gradients in Arctic and boreal regions in the early spring, when the albedos during recovery show the greatest variation. We use 30 m resolution Landsat-8 surface reflectances with concurrent coarser resolution (500m) MODIS high quality full inversion surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDF) products to produce higher resolution values of surface albedo. The high resolution full expression shortwave blue sky albedo product performs well with an overall RMSE of 0.0267 between tower and satellite measures under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions. While the importance of post-fire albedo recovery can be discerned from the MODIS albedo product at regional and global scales, our study addresses the particular importance of early spring post-fire albedo recovery at the landscape scale by considering the significant spatial heterogeneity of burn severity, and the impact of snow on the early spring albedo of various vegetation recovery types. We found that variations in early spring albedo within a single MODIS gridded pixel can be larger than 0.6. Since the frequency and severity of wildfires in Arctic and boreal systems is expected to increase in the coming decades, the dynamics of albedo in response to these rapid surface changes will increasingly impact the energy balance and contribute to other climate processes and physical feedback mechanisms. Surface radiation products derived from Landsat-8 data will thus play an important role in characterizing the carbon cycle and ecosystem processes of high latitude systems.