Surface albedo determines radiative forcing and is a key parameter for driving Earth’s climate. Better characterization of surface albedo for individual land cover types can reduce the uncertainty in estimating changes to Earth’s radiation balance due to land cover change. The dataset includes albedo look-up maps (LUMs) using a multiscale hierarchical approach based on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF)/albedo products and Landsat imagery. Ten years (2001 to 2011) of MODIS BRDF/albedo products were used to generate global albedo climatology. Albedo LUMs of land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) at multiple spatial resolutions were generated. The albedo LUMs included monthly statistics of white-sky (diffuse) and black-sky (direct) albedo for each IGBP class for visible, near-infrared, and shortwave broadband under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions. The LUMs provide high temporal and spatial resolution global albedo statistics without gaps for investigating albedo variations under different land cover scenarios and could be used for land surface modeling.Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Multiscale climatological albedo look-up maps (LUMS).File Name: Web Page, url: https://app.globus.org/file-manager?origin_id=904c2108-90cf-11e8-9672-0a6d4e044368&origin_path=/LTS/ADCdatastorage/NAL/published/node35339/The albedo look-up maps (LUMs) were built on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF)/albedo products and Landsat imagery. Ten years (2001 to 2011) of MODIS BRDF/albedo products were used to generate global albedo climatology. Albedo LUMs of land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) at multiple spatial resolutions were generated. The albedo LUMs included monthly statistics of white-sky (diffuse) and black-sky (direct) albedo for each IGBP class for visible, near-infrared, and shortwave broadband under both snow-free and snow-covered conditions.The zipped file includes: readme.docx snow_covered_hierarchical.v3.tar snow_covered_LUM.v3.tar snow_free_hierarchical.v3.tar snow_free_LUM.v3.tarSCINet users: The .zip file can be accessed/retrieved with valid SCINet account at this location: /LTS/ADCdatastorage/NAL/published/node35339/See the SCINet File Transfer guide for more information on moving large files: https://scinet.usda.gov/guides/data/datatransferGlobus users: The files can also be accessed through Globus by following this data link. The user will need to log in to Globus in order to retrieve this data. User accounts are free of charge with several options for signing on. Instructions for creating an account are on the login page.