Evaluation of IASI-derived dust aerosol characteristics over the tropical belt

Abstract

Abstract. IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer)-derived monthly mean infrared (10 μm) dust aerosol optical depth (AOD) and altitude are evaluated against ground-based Aerosol RObotic NETwork of sun photometers (AERONET) measurements of the 500 nm coarse-mode AOD and CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) measurements of altitude at 38 AERONET sites (sea and land) within the tropical belt (30° N–30° S). The period covered extends from July 2007 to June 2013. The evaluation goes through the analysis of Taylor diagrams and box-and-whiskers plots, separating situations over oceanic regions and over land. For the AOD, such an evaluation raises the problem of the difference between the two spectral domains used: infrared for IASI and visible for AERONET. Consequently, the two measurements do not share the same metrics. For that reason, AERONET coarse-mode AOD is first "translated" into IASI-equivalent infrared AOD. This is done by the determination, site by site, of an infrared to visible AOD ratio. Because translating visible coarse-mode AOD into infrared AOD requires accurate knowledge of variables, such as the infrared refractive index or the particle size distribution, quantifying the bias between these two sources of AOD is not straightforward. This problem is detailed in this paper, in particular in Appendix A. For the sites over oceanic regions, the overall AOD temporal correlation comes to 0.86 for 786 items (IASI and AERONET monthly mean bins). The overall normalized standard deviation (i.e. ratio of the standard deviation of the test data (IASI) to that of the reference data (AERONET)) is 0.93, close to the desired value of 1. Over land, essentially desert, correlation is 0.74 for 619 items and the normalized standard deviation is 0.86. This slight but significant degradation over land most probably results from the greater complexity of the surface (heterogeneity, elevation) and, to a lesser extent, to the episodic presence of dust within the boundary layer (particularly for sites close to active sources) to which IASI, as any thermal infrared sounder, is poorly sensitive, unlike AERONET. Site by site, disparities appear that are principally due to either the insufficient number of AERONET observations throughout the period considered, to the complexity of the location leading to the mixing of several aerosol types (in the case of the Persian Gulf, for example), to surface heterogeneities (elevation, emissivity, etc.), or to the use of a single aerosol model (called "MITR"). Results using another aerosol model, with a different refractive index, are presented and discussed. Concerning altitude over oceanic regions, correlation is 0.70 for 853 items and the normalized standard deviation is 0.92. A systematic bias of −0.4 km (IASI–CALIOP) is observed, with a standard deviation of 0.48 km. This result is satisfactory, considering the important differences between the two instruments (space–time coverage, definition of the altitude). Altitude results over land, essentially over deserts, are not satisfactory for a majority of sites. The smaller sensitivity of IASI to altitude compared to its sensitivity to AOD, added to the difficulties met for the determination of the AOD over land (surface heterogeneities), explain this result. Work is in progress to solve this difficulty. We conclude that the present results demonstrate the usefulness of IASI data, which are planned to cover a long period of time, as an additional constraint to a better knowledge of the impact of aerosols on the climate system.