NUMEROUS PAPERS HAVE HIGHLIGHTED HOW LAND COVER CHANGE AND ECOSYSTEM DISTURBANCE CAN ALTER THE SURFACE ENERGY BALANCE THROUGH CHANGES IN ALBEDO SURFACE ROUGHNESS AND EVAPOTRANSPIRATION. IN SOME CASES THESE SURFACE CHANGES MAY CONSTITUTE A LARGER RADIATIVE FORCING THAN THOSE ARISING FROM RELATED CARBON EMISSIONS. OUR APPROACH RELIES ON INTEGRATING THE 10-YEAR MODIS ALBEDO (MCD43) DATA PRODUCT A RECENTLY DEVELOPED 25-YEAR LANDSAT-BASED ALBEDO PRODUCT AND LANDSAT-BASED MAPS OF VEGETATION CHANGE. THE LANDSAT-BASED ALBEDO PRODUCT FUSES LANDSAT DIRECTIONAL SURFACE REFLECTANCE WITH MODIS ALBEDO VALUES DERIVED FROM HOMOGENOUS PIXELS AND ALLOWS ALBEDO TRENDS TO BE EVALUATED AT THE CHARACTERISTIC SCALE OF VEGETATION CHANGE (<1 HA). FIRST AN ANALYSIS OF THE MCD43A PRODUCT WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ISOLATE TRENDS IN SEASONAL (E.G. SNOW-COVERED/FREE; LEAF-ON/OFF) SURFACE ALBEDO. SECOND A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF LANDSAT TIME SERIES FROM EARTH S BIOMES WILL BE USED TO EXAMINE TRENDS IN ALBEDO FOR AREAS WITH KNOWN VEGETATION DISTURBANCE OR CONVERSION. THESE DATA WILL BE ASSEMBLED INTO CHARACTERISTIC ALBEDO TRAJECTORIES AS A FUNCTION OF DISTURBANCE TYPE BIOME SEASON AND LATITUDE. THE UMASSBOSTON CONTRIBUTION WILL FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE MODIS ALBEDOS FOR A RANGE OF LAND COVER TYPES AND DISTURBANCE REGIMES WITHIN ECOREGIONS AND ON EVALUATION OF THE MERGED LANDSAT ALBEDO PRODUCT THROUGH COMPARISON WITH SURFACE ALBEDO DATA. THE OUTCOME OF THIS WORK WILL BE AN IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF HOW RECENT VEGETATION DYNAMICS HAVE FORCED CLIMATE AND HOW HUMAN ACTIVITIES AND ALTERED DISTURBANCE REGIMES MAY AFFECT THIS FORCING IN THE FUTURE.