Aerosol optical thickness retrieval over non-Lambertian land surface with synergistic use of AATSR radiance measurements and MODIS derived Albedo Model Parameters

Abstract

Various algorithms have recently been developed in order to retrieve the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at continental scales. However, they are, to some extent, subject to large uncertainties resulting from some necessary physical assumptions on land surface anisotropy and level of brightness. In fact, disentangling aerosol and surface signals contained in the top of atmosphere (TOA) radiance received at the satellite level are a matter of difficulty because a single sensor itself cannot gather all required spatial, temporal, spectral and angular information. In particular, each instrument yields limited scanning configuration due to its platform's orbital characteristics. In this regard, a synergetic approach is presented which merges Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) TOA radiances and the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/Albedo Model Parameters Product for the retrieval of AOT at 0.55, 0.66, and 0.87 µm wavelengths over non-Lambertian land surface at a 5 km spatial resolution. In this approach, BRDF products serve to assess the surface reflectance in the AATSR geometry as a boundary layer. The peculiarity of the approach is that no specific assumption is required about the spectral characteristics of land surface, thus allowing for a quantitative retrieval of aerosol particles over any arbitrary land unit in virtue of combining forward and nadir AATSR observations. We obtain on average differences within 0.1 τ compared to in situ AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) measurements and 36 retrievals corresponding to 27 January, 12 February, 16 March, 28 May, 26 June, and 21 July 2006, respectively, over the city of Beijing in China. Pearson's correlation coefficient is 0.94 and 0.96 for nadir and forward AATSR, respectively. These suggest that AOT retrieval over land is indeed feasible by taking benefit of the validated MODIS BRDF. Besides, the first results indicate that the AATSR retrievals might be used to evaluate the spectral behaviour of the AOT.