Abstract
The recently released MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) Collection 6(C006) includes several significant improvements, which are expected to do well in analyzing aerosols and using the observations for air pollution application. The C006 Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrievals should be validated completely before they will be applied to specific research. However, the validation of C006 AOD retrievals at a regional scale is limited. Therefore, this study evaluated the performance of the MODIS-Aqua Collection 51 (C051) and C006 AOD retrievals over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China from 2006 to 2015 using ground-based Sun photometers. The algorithms of the AOD product include Dark Target (DT) and Deep Blue (DB). The results indicated that the improvements in DT C006 were slight, as the expected error (EE) increased by almost 9% over the two sites, and the DT C051 and DT C006 AOD were overestimated for both sites. DB C006 presented an improvement over DB C051, and a better correlation was observed between the collocated DB C006 retrievals and Sun photometer data (R ranged from 0.9343–0.9383). There was an increase in the frequency from DT C051 to DT C006, in the range 0.6–1.5, over the two sites; moreover, the AOD from the DB retrievals had a very narrow range (0.1–0.3). The spatial distribution of the AOD values was high (AOD > 0.7) over the southeastern region and low (AOD < 0.3) over the northwestern region. Changes in the DT C006 algorithm resulted in an increased AOD (0.085) for the region. The AOD values in spring and summer were higher than those in fall and winter. By subtracting the C051 AOD from the corresponding C006 values, greater positive changes (~0.2) were found in the southeastern areas during summer, presumably as the updated cloud-masking allowed heavy smoke retrievals. The accuracy of the AOD retrievals depended on the assumptions of surface reflectance and the selection of the aerosol model. The use of the DB C006 algorithm is recommended for the Beijing and Xianghe sites. Because of the limitations of the DT algorithm over sparsely vegetated surfaces, the DT C006 product is recommended for Xianghe.
Highlights
Atmospheric aerosols, i.e., small solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, are one of the most important components of the earth’s atmosphere since they play a key role in altering the global energy budget [1], modifying the hydrological cycle [2] and influencing atmospheric visibility [3] and public health [4]
The results indicated that the improvements in Dark Target (DT) C006 were slight, as the expected error (EE) increased by almost 9% over the two sites, and the DT C051 and DT C006 aerosol optical depth (AOD) were overestimated for both sites
Deep Blue (DB) C006 presented an improvement over DB C051, and a better correlation was observed between the collocated DB C006 retrievals and Sun photometer data (R ranged from 0.9343–0.9383)
Summary
Atmospheric aerosols, i.e., small solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, are one of the most important components of the earth’s atmosphere since they play a key role in altering the global energy budget [1], modifying the hydrological cycle [2] and influencing atmospheric visibility [3] and public health [4]. The AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) is a global network of calibrated ground-based Sun photometers This network provides regular measurements of aerosol optical properties such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) every 15 min [5]; limited sites and samples make it challenging to obtain the distribution of AOD, both globally and regionally. In this context, a series of satellite sensors have been deployed for characterizing the global distribution of aerosols [6,7,8,9,10,11]. It is essential to validate the satellite-derived AOD against ground-based AOD data
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