The solar zenith angle dependence of desert albedo

Most land models assume that the bare soil albedo is a function of soil color and moisture but independent of solar zenith angle (SZA). However, analyses of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) and albedo data over thirty desert locations indicate that bare soil albedo does vary with SZA. This is further confirmed using the in situ data. In particular, bare soil albedo normalized by its value at 60° SZA can be adequately represented by a one‐parameter formulation (1 + C)/(1 + 2C * cos(SZA)) or a two‐parameter formulation (1 + B1 * f1(SZA) + B2 * f2(SZA)). Using the MODIS and in situ data, the empirical parameters C, B1, and B2 are taken as 0.15, 0.346 and 0.063. The SZA dependence of soil albedo is also found to significantly affect the modeling of land surface energy balance over a desert site.