Abstract
Aerosol optical depth (AOD) characterizes the aerosol burden in the atmosphere, while its wavelength dependence is a sign of particle size. Long-term records of wavelength-resolved AOD with high quality and suitable continuity are required for climate change assessment. Typically, climate-related studies use AOD products provided by several, and perhaps different, ground-based instruments. The measurements from these instruments often have different accuracy and temporal resolution. To preserve the advantages of these products (high quality) and to reduce their disadvantages (patchy records), we generate a merged dataset obtained from four instruments deployed at a US continental site in which a nearly-continuous AOD record is found at two wavelengths (500 and 870 nm) with high quality and high temporal resolution (1-min) for a 21-yr period (1997–2018). The combined dataset addresses: (1) varying data quality and resolution mismatch of the individual AOD records, and (2) the uncertainty of the merged AOD and its relevance for user-specified needs. The generated dataset will be beneficial for a wide range of applications including aerosol-radiation interactions.
Highlights
Background & SummaryThe aerosol optical depth (AOD) is the key parameter characterizing atmospheric aerosol and has several important climate-related influences due to the complex interplay of aerosol particles with radiation and clouds[1,2,3]
There is a growing awareness that both the temporal and spatial variability of AOD4,5 may have a significant effect on the aerosol radiative forcing[6,7] and on the direction and magnitude of climate change[8,9]
The term “individual” will denote an AOD record obtained from a particular instrument
Summary
The aerosol optical depth (AOD) is the key parameter characterizing atmospheric aerosol and has several important climate-related influences due to the complex interplay of aerosol particles with radiation and clouds[1,2,3]. Long-term records of AOD with high quality and temporal continuity at climate-important locations are required to draw firm conclusions about the importance of this variability in forcing the climate change. The four individual AOD records outlined above create a unique opportunity for generating a multi-year dataset of a single “combined” AOD record with high quality, enhanced continuity and coverage We explore this opportunity by addressing two major challenges associated with: (1) varying data quality and the time resolution mismatch of the individual records, and (2) the uncertainty of the combined AOD and its relevance for user-specified needs. Information on the uncertainty of the measured AOD is critical for the aerosol radiative forcing and its error estimation[31,32,33]
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