Abstract
The multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) aerosol optical thickness (AOT) product (ιMISR) was compared with sunphotometer AOT (ιSP) at Dunhuang (40.09¼N, 94.41¼E), located near the Takalamakan and Gobi dust source regions in China, during March—November 2000. This study is unique because AOT measurements from the ground are not routinely available at or near dust source regions. The ιMISR and ιSP are highly correlated, with linear correlation coefficients (R) ranging from 0.85 to 0.95 depending on the different comparison criteria used to assess the MISR retrievals. With one exception where ιMISR shows large differences (>0.3) when compared with ιSP during the passage of a dust front, all other collocated ιSP/ιMISR pairs are highly correlated with R > 0.9 and with root-mean-square error of 0.06 when retrieval conditions are favourable. Overall, ιMISR systemically over-estimate ιSP by 0.05, but they all fall within the predicted uncertainties (0.05 or 20% of ιSP, whichever is larger). Due to diurnal change of AOT, the difference between daily averaged ιSP values and ιMISR reported during MISR overpass time is about 0.09. We discuss the implications of these results for satellite aerosol retrievals and radiative forcing studies.
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