MISR abstract
Alexander P. Trishchenko, Konstantin Khlopenkova, Yi Luob. (2004) Retrieval of BRDF for pure landcover types from MODIS and MISR using an angular unmixing approach. Proceedings of the SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 5549(167).
Information about the surface bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) and albedo is required as a
boundary condition for radiative transfer modeling, aerosol retrievals, cloud retrievals, and atmospheric modeling. The
typical spatial resolution provided by MODIS and MISR standard surface products (~1km) is insufficient to measure
the BRDF of the pure surface types, because most pixels at this scale correspond to mixed classes. We present an
approach for the retrieval of the basic surface BRDFs from the observations of MODIS/Terra and MISR using an
angular unmixing method. Our analysis is focused on the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program area in
the Southern Great Planes (SGP) region, which is a predominantly agricultural area with a few major crop types. Pure
surface classes were identified using high-resolution (30m) Landsat imagery and results of a ground survey.
Assuming that the reflectance for each coarse pixel is a linear superposition of reflectances of basic surface types, it is
possible to estimate the original BRDF parameters for each landcover type. In our case, three dominant classes were
selected: wheat, grass, and baresoil. In the case of wheat and grass, the dispersion of the results is smaller than in the
case of soil. This can be explained by the relatively low fractional coverage of the soil class within large pixels and by
the significant variability of soil reflectance depending on wetness, soil type (sand, clay, etc.), and other factors. The
correlation between the BRDF shape factors and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has also been
analyzed. There is a high degree of correlation between the NDVI and BRDF isotropic factor (r0 in the case of MISR),
while the correlation with other BRDF parameters was found to be smaller. In general, the NDVI can be used as a crude
proxy for the BRDF shape.