Analytic forms of bidirectional reflectance functions for Earth radiation budget studies

A simple analytic formulation of BDRF to model the anisotropy of reflected radiation for ERBE scene types is presented. The model coefficients are derived by applying a fit to the Suttles et al. (1988) BDRF tabulations which were used to process ERBE data. For each scene type, a single set of model parameters is required for application to any combination of viewing geometries. This analytic form satisfies reciprocity and is continuous from one angular bin to another. The analytic BDRF is validated with ERBE observations and have shown good agreement. Results of this study are used for mission-planning and data interpretation of next-generation Earth radiation budget missions.