Albedo Response to Disturbance from Integrating Landsat and MODIS Data

Jeffrey Masek, NASA GSFC, jeffrey.g.masek@nasa.gov
Yanmin Shuai, NASA/GSFC, yanmin.shuai@ertcorp.com (Presenter)
Feng Gao, NASA GSFC/ERT Inc., fgao@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov
Crystal Schaaf, Environmental Earth and Ocean Sciences, schaaf@bu.edu
Christopher A Williams, Clark University, cwilliams@clarku.edu
Zhuosen Wang, Boston Unviersity, wangzhs@bu.edu

Numerous papers have highlighted how land-cover change and ecosystem disturbance alter the surface energy balance through changes in albedo, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. In some cases, these surface changes may constitute a larger radiative forcing than those arising from associated carbon emissions. Past studies on post-disturbance albedo have been limited by the resolution of available MODIS data (500m), which is significantly coarser than the characteristic scales of ecosystem disturbance and human land use. Our project addresses this issue by creating high-resolution (30m) albedo maps through the fusion of Landsat TM/ETM+ directional reflectance with MODIS BRDF/Albedo (MCD43A) data. These maps permit trends in albedo to be evaluated at the characteristic scale of vegetation change (~1 ha).  Our goals are to: (i) assemble a regional library of albedo values for IGBP land cover types; (ii) assemble time series of post-disturbance albedo from a latitudinal distribution of typical forest disturbance types (fire, insect damage, harvest); (iii) evaluate decadal trends in landscape albedo for “hotspots” of vegetation change; and (iv) assess the radiative forcing associated with historical (since 1700) and future (scenario-based) global land-cover change.  Here we present recent results from the MODIS-Landsat fusion algorithm for 30-meter albedo retrieval, including validation from BSRN sites (Shuai et al, 2011, RSE).  We will also present initital versions of the IGBP-type albedo look-up table (task i), and the BRDF look-up table for post-disturbance recovery based on data from the Pacific NW of the United States (task ii).

Presentation: 2011_Poster_Masek_283_243.pdf (292k)

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Global Change Impact & Vulnerability   (Tue 11:30 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Masek, Jeff: Albedo Trends Related to Land Cover Change and Disturbance: A Multi-sensor Approach ...details

Poster Location ID: 283