Aerosol Retrieval over Urban Area by Syngertic Use of Feng Yun-3C MERSI and Terra MODIS Data

Abstract

The retrieval of aerosol over urban area is a difficult task because urban area consists of complex ground surface features which usually have bright surface reflectance. Many aerosol optical thickness (AOT) retrieval algorithms are based on traditional dark dense vegetation (DDV) algorithm which has excellent performance at retrieving aerosol's distribution and properties, but these algorithms are restricted to low surface reflectance, such as clean water bodies, dense vegetation and other natural terrain. In this paper, we present an aerosol retrieval algorithm over urban area that applies the synergetic use of FengYun-3C Medium Resolution Spectral Image (MERSI) data and Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. By applying this algorithm to Beijing city, we obtain the AOT spatial distribution covering the whole Beijing city with a 1km*1km resolution at three visible spectral bands (central wavelength 0.47, 0.55, 0.65 um). For validating the performance of the algorithm, the ground-based measurement data from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) is used, the results show that the algorithm has a good performance on aerosol retrieval on urban area and a significant for environmental protection and urban air quality monitoring.