A set of algorithms is combined for a simple derivation of land surface albedo from measurements of reflected visible and near‐infrared radiation made by the advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar orbiting satellites. The system consists of a narrowband‐to‐broadband conversion and bidirectional correction at the top of the atmosphere and an atmospheric correction. We demonstrate the results with 1 month worth of data from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) global vegetation index (GVI) weekly data set and the NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Atmosphere (PATMOS) project daily data. Error analysis of the methodology indicates that the surface albedo can be retrieved with 10–15% relative accuracy. Monthly albedo maps derived from September 1989 GVI and PATMOS data agree well except for small discrepancies attributed mainly to different preprocessing and residual atmospheric effects. A 5‐year mean September map derived from the GVI multiannual time series is consistent with that derived from low‐resolution Earth Radiation Budget Experiment data as well as with a September map compiled from ground observations and used in many numerical weather and climate models. Instantaneous GVI‐derived albedos were found to be consistent with surface albedo measurements over various surface types. The discrepancies found can be attributed to differences in areal coverage and representativeness of the satellite and ground data. The present pilot study is a prototype for a routine real‐time production of high‐resolution global surface albedo maps from NOAA AVHRR Global Area Coverage (GAC) data.