Validation of GLASS albedo products using ground measurements and landsat TM data

The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) albedo products, which are being generated in China under the 863 key project entitled “Generation and Applications of Global Products of Essential Land Variables”. Ground measurements at twelve sites over three land cover types were collected from AmeriFlux and used to calibrate and validate the albedo products derived from Landsat TM images, and then the validated TM albedo products were aggregated to 1 km resolution to evaluate the accuracy of GLASS albedo products. The validation results demonstrated that GLASS albedo products have a high accuracy, with an overall root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.026 and bias of -0.009. In order to better understand the accuracy of GLASS albedo products, further validations need to be performed over more land cover types and at more ground sites.