Evaluation of the AVHRR surface reflectance long term data record between 1984 and 2011

• First long-term global evaluation of the surface reflectance record from AVHRR. Overall performance close to proposed specification 0.071 ? + 0.0071. No significant variations between seasons. Largest uncertainties found over forest classes. Strong correlations band errors barren and sparsely vegetated areas. The data (LTDR) Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) provides daily with coverage 1980s present day, making it a unique source information for study land properties their dynamics. Surface is critical input generation products such as vegetation indices, albedo, cover. Therefore, utmost importance quantify its better understand how they might propagate into downstream products. Due prolonged length LTDR previous unavailability well calibrated reference, no comprehensive complete has been reported so far. Recently, United States Geological Survey (USGS) began production datasets Landsat 4–8 satellites, which provide suitable reference against can be compared to. In this study, we evaluate LTDRV5 1984 2011 using Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM5) Collection-1 reference. Data TM5 was obtained 740,000 globally distributed scenes gave representative set types atmospheric conditions. Differences due observation geometry were accounted Vermote-Justice-Breon (VJB) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) normalization method adjust AVHRR conditions; spectral response differences minimized adjustment factors (SBAFs) derived Earth Observing One (EO-1) Hyperion atmospherically corrected hyperspectral spectra. in terms accuracy, precision, uncertainty (APU). Results show that or within combined 0.0071, where estimated reflectance.