Validation of the MODIS global land surface albedo product using ground measurements in a semidesert region on the Tibetan Plateau

An evaluation of the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) global land surface albedo product is essential for its use in scientific studies. We evaluate the accuracy of the albedo product with nearly 3 years (from January 2001 to July 2003) of ground measurements from the Gaize Automatic Weather Station (32.30°N, 84.06°E, 4420 m) on the western Tibetan Plateau. The land surface consists of semidesert or desert soil. Vegetation in this region is very rare. A comparison with field measurements shows that the MODIS global land surface albedo meets an absolute accuracy requirement of 0.02. There is no distinctive bias between the MODIS-derived albedo and the ground-measured albedo, with a root-mean-square error of 0.0186 and a maximum error of 0.036.