Evaluation of MODIS-derived estimates of the albedo over the Atacama Desert using ground-based spectral measurements

authored by

Raúl R. Cordero, Sarah Feron, Edgardo Sepúlveda, Alessandro Damiani, Juan M. Carrera, Jose Jorquera, Juan A. Alfonso, Rosalino Fuenzalida, Miguel Rivas, Shelley MacDonell, Gunther Seckmeyer, Chenghao Wang, Zutao Ouyang, Stef Lhermitte

Abstract

Surface albedo is an important forcing parameter that drives the radiative energy budget as it determines the fraction of the downwelling solar irradiance that the surface reflects. Here we report on ground-based measurements of the spectral albedo (350–2200 nm) carried out at 20 sites across a North–South transect of approximately 1300 km in the Atacama Desert, from latitude 18° S to latitude 30° S. These spectral measurements were used to evaluate remote sensing estimates of the albedo derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We found that the relative mean bias error (RMBE) of MODIS-derived estimates was within ± 5% of ground-based measurements in most of the Atacama Desert (18–27° S). Although the correlation between MODIS-derived estimates and ground-based measurements remained relatively high (R= 0.94), RMBE values were slightly larger in the southernmost part of the desert (27–30° S). Both MODIS-derived data and ground-based measurements show that the albedo at some bright spots in the Atacama Desert may be high enough (up to 0.25 in visible range) for considerably boosting the performance of bifacial photovoltaic technologies (6–12%).

Organisation(s)

Institute of Meteorology and Climatology

External Organisation(s)

Universidad de Santiago de Chile
University of Groningen
Chiba University
Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas
Universidad Arturo Prat
UNIVERSIDAD DE TARAPACA
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA)
Stanford University
Delft University of Technology

Type

Article

Journal

Scientific reports

Volume

11

ISSN

2045-2322

Publication date

06.10.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98622-4 (Access: Open)