Average Aerosol Optical Thickness Research Articles

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Prediction of AOT in Coal Resource Cities: A Case Study of Shanxi Province, China

As aerosols in the air have a great influence on the health of residents of coal resource-based cities, these municipalities are confronting the dilemma of air pollution that is caused by the increase of suspended particles in the atmosphere and their development process. Aerosol optical thickness could be used to explore the aerosol temporal and spatial variations and to develop accurate prediction models, which is of great significance to the control of air pollution in coal resource-based cities. This paper explored the temporal spatial variation characteristics of aerosols in coal resource-based regions. A total of 11 typical coal-resource prefecture-level cities in the Shanxi Province were studied and inverted the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) among these cities based on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data and analyzed the significant factors affecting AOT. Through inputting significant correlation factors as the input variables of NARX (nonlinear auto regressive models with exogenous inputs) neural network, the monthly average AOTs in the Shanxi Province were predicted between 2011 and 2019. The results showed that, in terms of time series, AOT increased from January to July and decreased from July to December, the maximum AOT was 0.66 in summer and the minimum was 0.2 in autumn, and it was related to the local monsoon, temperature, and humidity. While as far as the space alignment is concerned, the figure for AOT in Shanxi Province varied significantly. High AOT was mainly concentrated in the centre and south and low AOT was focused on the northwestern part. Among the positively correlated factors, the correlation coefficient of population density and temperature exceeded 0.8, which was highly positive, and among the negatively correlated factors, the correlation coefficient of NDVI exceeded -0.8, which was highly negative. After improving the model by adding the important factors that were mentioned before, the error between the predicted mean value and the actual mean value was no more than 0.06. Considering this charge, the NARX neural network with multiple inputs can contribute to better prediction results.

Characteristics of Spatial and Temporal Evolution and Investigation of Air Pollution in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Based on Ground-Space Observation Data

The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics, evolution trend and potential climatic effects of air pollution in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) were analyzed on different time scales and spatial spaces, based on ground environment observation data from June 2014 to December 2018 and satellite remote sensing inversion products from 2000 to 2018. The results show that:① From the in-situ observed daily average concentration of PM2.5, good or mild to moderate pollution occurred in January, February, October, November, and December every year, and the rest of the time was excellent. ② Based on the annual average PM2.5 concentration obtained by satellite for the past 20 years, the spatial characteristics showed that the external radiation is centered on Guangzhou and Foshan. The time evolution shows the characteristics of an Ω shape, which increases gradually from 2000 to 2009, is highest in 2008, and then gradually decreases. ③ The monthly average aerosol optical thickness (AOT) value from the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro Radiometer satellite reversion every 10 years for a period (2000-2009 for a period, 2010-2018 for a period) was used to see the monthly variation. The monthly average AOT value in the first period was larger than that in the second period of the same month, the maximum value was in March and April, and the minimum value was in November and December. It is envisaged to draw a line along the north-south direction of the Pearl River Port, which basically shows that the AOT value in the west is greater than that in the east. ④ According to the observed daily average concentration data of O3-8h, the main concentration level of O3-8h in the GBA is excellent. The cities with good ozone concentration were most numerous in 2014, with five cities, and least in 2018, with only one city. The highest ozone concentration was in September, followed by June and November, and then May and July. In the past 20 years, the spatial distribution of the average concentration of O3 monitored by satellite remote sensing showed a characteristic Ω shape, increasing initially and then decreasing. The maximum value was in May, and the north-south boundary line appeared in space. ⑤ There is a good linear relationship between the interannual variation of monthly mean temperature and radiation, whereas the relationship between AOT and radiation cannot be described by a simple linear relationship.

Measurement of Aerosols Optical Thickness of the Atmosphere using the GLOBE Handheld Sun Photometer.

Here, we describe the measurement of aerosol optical thickness using the GLOBE handheld sun photometer. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) was measured at Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA, 29.96° N, 90.11° W and 3 m above sea level). The measurements were done at two different wavelengths, 505 nm and 625 nm. AOT measurements were done 6 times a day (7 AM, 9 AM, 11 AM, solar noon, 3 PM and 5 PM). The data shown in this paper are the monthly average AOT values taken at solar noon. During each measurement time; at least five values of the sunlight voltage V and the dark voltage Vdark are taken for each channel. The mean for these five measurements is taken as the average for that measurement time. Other meteorological data such as temperature, surface pressure, rainfall and relative humidity are also measured at the same time. The whole protocol is completed within a time span of 10-15 min. The measured AOT values at 505 nm and 625 nm are then used to extrapolate the AOT values for wavelengths 667 nm, 551 nm, 532 nm and 490 nm. The measured and extrapolated AOT values were then compared with values from the nearest AERONET station at Wave CIS site 6 (AERONET, 28.87° N, 90.48° W and 33 m above sea level), which is about 96 km south of XULA. In this study we tracked the annual and daily variations of AOT for a 12 month period from September 2017 to August 2018. We also compared AOT data from two independently calibrated GLOBE handheld sun photometers at the XULA site. The data show that the two instruments are in excellent agreement.

Vertical aerosol distribution in the southern hemispheric midlatitudes as observed with lidar in Punta Arenas, Chile (53.2° S and 70.9° W), during ALPACA

Abstract. Within this publication, lidar observations of the vertical aerosol distribution above Punta Arenas, Chile (53.2∘ S and 70.9∘ W), which have been performed with the Raman lidar PollyXT from December 2009 to April 2010, are presented. Pristine marine aerosol conditions related to the prevailing westerly circulation dominated the measurements. Lofted aerosol layers could only be observed eight times during the whole measurement period. Two case studies are presented showing long-range transport of smoke from biomass burning in Australia and regionally transported dust from the Patagonian Desert, respectively. The aerosol sources are identified by trajectory analyses with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) and FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model (FLEXPART). However, seven of the eight analysed cases with lofted layers show an aerosol optical thickness of less than 0.05. From the lidar observations, a mean planetary boundary layer (PBL) top height of 1150 ± 350 m was determined. An analysis of particle backscatter coefficients confirms that the majority of the aerosol is attributed to the PBL, while the free troposphere is characterized by a very low background aerosol concentration. The ground-based lidar observations at 532 and 1064 nm are supplemented by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Sun photometers and the space-borne Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). The averaged aerosol optical thickness (AOT) determined by CALIOP was 0.02 ± 0.01 in Punta Arenas from 2009 to 2010.

A Simplified Method for Retrieving Aerosol Optical Thickness Using Visibility Data Between 1980 and 2014, A Case Study in China

Analysis of long-term variations of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) is essential to understand the climate change and earth radiation budget. A simplified method was developed in this study to derive the AOT using more than thirty-year surface visibility and aerosol vertical distribution from LiDAR climatology of vertical aerosol structure for space-based LiDAR simulation studies data. Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) TERRA and AQUA daily measurements were used to evaluate the performance of the inferred AOT. Results show that the correlations of monthly AOT between MODIS measurements and inferred data are higher than 0.59 and the annual AOT values have stronger correlations ( r > 0.82) than monthly data. The inferred AOT can capture the general spatial distribution similar to satellite images with long-term scale. The correlation of seasonal variation between two datasets is also higher than 0.77. The root mean squared error of inferred AOT relative to MODIS AOT is about 0.22 and 0.11 for monthly and yearly data, respectively. Analysis using singular value decomposition shows that the inferred AOT is consistent with MODIS measurements during 2002–2014 spatially and temporally. The average annual AOT in over 200 stations in China between 1980 and 2014 shows generally upward trends. Results from this paper can be used for further analysis of the aerosol effects on climate change in a regional scale.

Aerosol meteorology of the Maritime Continent for the 2012 7SEAS southwest monsoon intensive study – Part 1: regional-scale phenomena

Abstract. The largest 7 Southeast Asian Studies (7SEAS) operation period within the Maritime Continent (MC) occurred in the August–September 2012 biomass burning season. Included was an enhanced deployment of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometers, multiple lidars, and field measurements to observe transported smoke and pollution as it left the MC and entered the southwest monsoon trough. Here we describe the nature of the overall 2012 southwest monsoon (SWM) and biomass burning season to give context to the 2012 deployment. The MC in 2012 was in a slightly warm El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase and with spatially typical burning activity. However, overall fire counts for 2012 were 10 % lower than the Reid et al. (2012) baseline, with regions of significant departures from this norm, ranging from southern Sumatra (+30 %) to southern Kalimantan (−42 %). Fire activity and monsoonal flows for the dominant burning regions were modulated by a series of intraseasonal oscillation events (e.g., Madden–Julian Oscillation, or MJO, and boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation, or BSISO). As is typical, fire activity systematically progressed eastward over time, starting with central Sumatran fire activity in June related to a moderately strong MJO event which brought drier air from the Indian Ocean aloft and enhanced monsoonal flow. Further burning in Sumatra and Kalimantan Borneo occurred in a series of significant events from early August to a peak in the first week of October, ending when the monsoon started to migrate back to its wintertime northeastern flow conditions in mid-October. Significant monsoonal enhancements and flow reversals collinear with tropical cyclone (TC) activity and easterly waves were also observed. Islands of the eastern MC, including Sulawesi, Java, and Timor, showed less sensitivity to monsoonal variation, with slowly increasing fire activity that also peaked in early October but lingered into November. Interestingly, even though fire counts were middling, resultant AERONET 500 nm aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from fire activity was high, with maximums of 3.6 and 5.6 in the Sumatra and Kalimantan source regions at the end of the burning season and an average of ∼ 1. AOTs could also be high at receptor sites, with a mean and maximum of 0.57 and 1.24 in Singapore and 0.61 and 0.8 in Kuching Sarawak. Ultimately, outside of the extreme 2015 El Niño event, average AERONET AOT values were higher than any other time since sites were established. Thus, while satellite fire data, models, and AERONET all qualitatively agree on the nature of smoke production and transport, the MC's complex environment resulted in clear differences in quantitative interpretation of these datasets.

Investigation of permanent aerosol source regions over Asia using multi-year MODIS observations

This work examines the permanent aerosol source regions over Asia by analyzing 7-years data of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) product from MODerate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua and Terra satellites. The analysis is carried out by taking the average AOT map during the years 2002-2008 over the region in different seasons, in which the permanent source regions will appear pronounced whereas the locations influenced by transport or any emissions that last for shorter time period will be smoothened. The results show four such main permanent source regions. Angstrom Exponent (AE) aerosol product is used to infer about the possible type and size of aerosols over the source regions. The average AOT trends over the source regions in different seasons during 2002-2008 are examined and the results are discussed based on the corresponding variations of meteorological parameters derived from National Center for Environmental Prediction - National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis data. In addition, the trends in AOT variation during the period 2002-2008 over certain selected stations over the area are also discussed.

Long-term changes in the aerosol optical thickness in moscow and correction under strong atmospheric turbidity

We have estimated and compensated the error in long-term series of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) calculated from the data on direct integral solar radiation measured by a standard actinometer at the Meteorological Observatory of the Moscow State University (MO MSU) for strong atmospheric turbidity conditions. The necessary corrections have been obtained by the Monte-Carlo simulation of the actinometry measurements for different atmospheric conditions, taking into account the angular size of the field of view of the instrument; and a special correctional formula has been obtained. This correction formula has been applied for all timed AOT values of above 0.5 observed at the MO MSU for the entire time period from 1955 to 2013. Changes in the long-term average AOT values in Moscow occurred only when the smoky haze from the forest and peat fires affected the aerosol turbidity of the atmosphere. Here, the significant decreasing trend of aerosol optical depth of the atmosphere from 1955 to 2013 has been retained with the same confidence level.

Long-term variability of aerosol optical thickness in Eastern Europe over 2001–2014 according to the measurements at the Moscow MSU MO AERONET site with additional cloud and NO<sub>2</sub> correction

Abstract. The atmospheric aerosol properties were obtained within the framework of the AERONET program at the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory (Moscow MSU MO) over the 2001–2014 period. The quality data control has revealed the necessity of additional cloud screening and NO2 correction. The application of additional cloud screening according to hourly visual cloud observations provides a decrease in monthly average aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 500 nm of up to 0.03 compared with the standard data set. We also show that the additional NO2 correction of the AERONET version 2 data is needed in large megalopolis, like Moscow, with 12 million residents and NOx emission rates of about 100 kt yr−1. According to the developed method, we estimated monthly mean NO2 content, which provides an additional decrease of 0.01 for AOT at 340 nm, and of about 0.015 – for AOT at 380 and 440 nm. The ratios of NO2 optical thickness to AOT at 380 and 440 nm are about 5–6 % in summer and reach 15–20 % in winter when both factors have similar effects on UV irradiance. Seasonal cycle of AOT at 500 nm is characterized by a noticeable summer and spring maxima, and a minimum in winter conditions, changing from 0.08 in December and January up to 0.3 in August. The application of the additional cloud screening removes a local AOT maximum in February. Statistically significant negative trends in annual AOT for UV and mid-visible spectral range have been obtained both for average and 50 % quantile values. The pronounced negative changes were observed in most months with the rate of about −1–5 % yr−1 and could be attributed to the negative trends in emissions (E) of different aerosol precursors of about 135 Gg yr−2 in ESOx, 54 Gg yr−2 in ENMVOC, and slight negative changes in NOx over the European part of Russia. No significant influence of natural factors on temporal AOT variations has been revealed.

Development towards a global operational aerosol consensus: basic climatological characteristics of the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction Multi-Model Ensemble (ICAP-MME)

Abstract. Here we present the first steps in developing a global multi-model aerosol forecasting ensemble intended for eventual operational and basic research use. Drawing from members of the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction (ICAP) latest generation of quasi-operational aerosol models, 5-day aerosol optical thickness (AOT) forecasts are analyzed for December 2011 through November 2012 from four institutions: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and Naval Research Lab/Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (NRL/FNMOC). For dust, we also include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NOAA NGAC) product in our analysis. The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and UK Met Office dust products have also recently become members of ICAP, but have insufficient data to be included in this analysis period. A simple consensus ensemble of member and mean AOT fields for modal species (e.g., fine and coarse mode, and a separate dust ensemble) is used to create the ICAP Multi-Model Ensemble (ICAP-MME). The ICAP-MME is run daily at 00:00 UTC for 6-hourly forecasts out to 120 h. Basing metrics on comparisons to 21 regionally representative Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites, all models generally captured the basic aerosol features of the globe. However, there is an overall AOT low bias among models, particularly for high AOT events. Biomass burning regions have the most diversity in seasonal average AOT. The Southern Ocean, though low in AOT, nevertheless also has high diversity. With regard to root mean square error (RMSE), as expected the ICAP-MME placed first over all models worldwide, and was typically first or second in ranking against all models at individual sites. These results are encouraging; furthermore, as more global operational aerosol models come online, we expect their inclusion in a robust operational multi-model ensemble will provide valuable aerosol forecasting guidance.

Spatial and temporal variation of Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)-derived aerosol optical thickness over Shandong, China

Spatial and temporal variations in regional aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 550 nm over Shandong Province, China, based on one year’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data were investigated. The regional forest background (FB) annual mean AOT was 0.467 with a standard deviation of 0.339, which was much higher than the North America background continental AOT level of 0.10. Higher AOT values for the study region were mainly found in the spring and summer, especially from May to August, while the lowest mean values were seen in November and December. Urban areas all have obviously higher mean AOT values than those of the rural areas resulting from intense anthropogenic sources. Given that FB AOT represents the natural background level, we estimated that anthropogenic emissions and secondary aerosol generation contribute approximately 0.352 to aerosol loading in this region. Additionally, strong regional imbalance of AOT was found to be distributed over the study area. The maximum annual average AOT values occurred in inland cities, while coastal cities usually had lower AOT values.

What drives the aerosol distribution in Guangdong--the most developed province in Southern China?

This paper uses Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) over Guangdong, the most developed province in China, during 2010–2012. Linear regression and self-organizing maps (SOM) are used to investigate the relationship between AOT and its affecting factors, including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), elevation, urbanized land fraction, and several socio-economic variables. Results show that the highest values of τ0.55 mainly occur over the rapidly-developing Pearl River Delta (PRD) region and the eastern coast. Seasonal averaged AOT is highest in summer (0.416), followed by spring (0.351), winter (0.292), and autumn (0.254). From unary linear regression and SOM analysis, AOT is shown to be strongly negatively correlated to NDVI (R2 = 0.782) and elevation (R2 = 0.731), and positively correlated with socio-economic factors, especially GDP, industry and vehicle density (R2 above 0.73), but not primary industry. Multiple linear regression between AOT and the contributing factors shows much higher R2 values (>0.8), indicative of the clear relationships between AOT and variables. This study illustrates that human activities have strong impacts on aerosols distribution in Guangdong Province. Economic and industrial developments, as well as vehicle density, are the main controlling factors on aerosol distribution.

A Study of Dust Aerosols Impact on Hurricanes with Multi-Sensors Measurement from Space

MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) atmospheric profiles (temperature and moisture) Level 2 products are studied to investigate dust aerosols impacts on hurricanes through spatial analysis. Spatial regions were selected based on two concentric circles (an annulus) and segmented by left and right regions of 180° each around the hurricanes center. Statistical relationships between MODIS AOT, AIRS temperature and percent relative humidity (RH) of the hurricanes Isabel (2003), Frances (2004), Katrina (2005) and Helene (2006) are presented. The variation of temperature and RH values represented in static-left, static-right, dynamic-left and dynamic-right for the 500 mb, 700 mb and 850 mb pressure levels are analyzed to determine the impacts of dust aerosols on temperature and RH. Average AOT was found highest in Helene (0.27) than Isabel (0.23), Frances (0.18) and Katrina (0.16). Negative impacts on the atmospheric moisture levels and positive on the temperature was found by dust aerosols. This study concludes that in 2006 dust dampened the force of hurricane Helene contributing towards extremely dryer atmosphere and inhibiting the conductive to intensify the hurricane.

Aerosol optical thickness trends and population growth in the Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent occupies 2.4% of the world land mass and is home to ∼17% of the world population. It is characterized by a wide range of population density (P), significant population growth and high levels of air pollution. The quantification of the effect of urbanization on aerosol optical thickness (AOT) trends was carried out by analysing 8-year (March 2000 to February 2008) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) satellite data. Here we show that over extensive areas with differing population densities, which are significant parts of the Indian subcontinent, (1) the higher the averaged population density the bigger the averaged AOT and (2) the larger the population growth the stronger the increasing trends in AOT. Over the regions with P > 100 persons km−2 (more than 70% of the territory), a population growth of ∼1.5% year−1 was accompanied by increasing AOT trends of over 2% year−1. The presence of the aforementioned AOT trends is evidence of air quality deterioration, in particular in highly populated areas with P > 500 persons km−2. This situation could worsen with the continued growth of the Indian population.

Long‐term trends of zonally averaged aerosol optical thickness observed from operational satellite AVHRR instrument

AbstractAtmospheric aerosols are solid and liquid particles suspended in air. Aerosols have important consequences for global climate, ecosystem processes and human health due to their various sizes and chemical compositions. In this paper, nearly 23 years of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) data from operational satellite AVHRR observations over the global ocean have been used to study the latitudinal variations of the linear long‐term trends (LLT) of zonal mean AOT. For the LLT of zonally averaged AOT over the global ocean, their significance generally falls below the 95% confidence level. However, the LLT of zonal mean AOT for the individual oceans, such as the Atlantic Ocean (AO), Indian Ocean (IO), and West Pacific Ocean (WPO), can easily pass 95% confidence level in some latitude belts (e.g. 5–25°N for IO, 33–40°N for WPO, 30–50°N for AO) and may produce zonally averaged solar dimming/brightening accordingly in cloudless conditions. The results will help us to understand the latitudinal features of the decadal changes in aerosol loadings, as well as surface solar radiation, better. Published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Toward unified satellite climatology of aerosol properties: What do fully compatible MODIS and MISR aerosol pixels tell us?

Because of the global nature of aerosol effects on climate, satellite observations have been and will be an indispensable source of information about aerosol characteristics for use in various assessments of climate and climate change. There have been parallel claims of unprecedented accuracy of aerosol retrievals with the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and multiangle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR). These claims have been based on limited comparisons with ground-based observations which, however, are not necessarily indicative of the actual global performance of these satellite sensors. Fortunately, both instruments have been flown for many years on the same Terra platform, which provides a unique opportunity to compare fully collocated pixel-level MODIS and MISR aerosol retrievals directly and globally. Our present extensive analysis of ∼8 years of the MODIS-Terra and MISR aerosol data documents unexpected significant disagreements at the pixel level as well as between long-term and spatially averaged aerosol properties. The only point on which both datasets seem to fully agree is that there may have been a weak increasing tendency in the globally averaged aerosol optical thickness (AOT) over the land and no long-term AOT tendency over the oceans. Overall our new results suggest that the current knowledge of the global distribution of the AOT and, especially, aerosol microphysical characteristics remains unsatisfactory.

Aerosol direct radiative effect in the Po Valley region derived from AERONET measurements

Abstract. The aerosol direct radiative effect (ADRE) affecting the Po Valley and the adjacent North Adriatic Sea is studied using 10-year series of measurements collected at two AERONET sites located in the western part of the Valley (Ispra), and on a platform (AAOT) offshore Venice. This region is characterized by a high, mostly continental, aerosol load with comparable average aerosol optical thickness τa at both locations (0.21 at 500 nm) and more absorbing aerosols at Ispra. A dynamic aerosol model accounting for the changes in scattering phase function with τa is used for radiative transfer calculations, together with boundary conditions representative of terrestrial and marine surfaces. A sensitivity analysis allows the construction of an error budget for the daily ADRE estimates, found to be of the order of 20% and mostly due to uncertainties on aerosol single scattering albedo and τa. The daily radiative efficiencies, normalized by τa at 500 nm, increase from December to June, from −17 to −24 W m−2 τa−1 at top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and −33 to −72 W m−2 τa−1 at surface for the Po Valley, and from −15 to −32 (TOA) and −35 to −65 W m−2 τa−1 (surface) for the AAOT site. The average of log-transformed ADRE for TOA, surface and atmosphere are −5.2, −12.2 and +6.8 W m−2 for the Po Valley case, and −6.5, −13.0 and +6.5 W m−2 for the AAOT site but these values can be much higher for individual days. Concurrent clear-sky days give indications on the regional atmospheric heating spatial gradients. Differences between the atmospheric ADRE at the two locations average 6.3 W m−2 with a gradient positive towards the inner valley in 65% of the cases. This study confirms the importance of duly considering the radiative impact of aerosols on the regional climate.

Study of long‐term trend in aerosol optical thickness observed from operational AVHRR satellite instrument

The long‐term trend of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) over the global oceans has been studied by using a nearly 25‐year aerosol record from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Atmosphere extended (PATMOS‐x) data set. Both global and regional analyses have been performed to derive the AOT tendencies for monthly, seasonal, and annual mean AOT values at AVHRR 0.63 μm channel (or Channel‐1). A linear decadal change of −0.01 is obtained for globally and monthly averaged aerosol optical thickness, τ1, of AVHRR Channel‐1. This negative tendency is even more evident for globally and annually averaged τ1 and the magnitude can be up to −0.03/decade. Seasonal patterns in the AOT regional long‐term trend are evident. In general, negative tendencies are observed for seasonally averaged τ1 in regions influenced by emissions from industrialized countries and the magnitude can be up to −0.10/decade. Positive tendencies are observed in regions influenced by emissions from fast developing countries and the magnitude can be up to +0.04/decade. For regions heavily influenced by Saharan desert particles, a negative trend with a maximum magnitude of −0.03/decade is detected. However, over regions influenced by smoke from biomass burning, positive tendencies with a maximum magnitude of +0.04/decade are observed. Sensitivity analyses have also been performed to study the effects of radiance calibration, aerosol retrieval algorithm, and spatial resolution of input retrieval radiances on the global aerosol long‐term tendencies.

Aerosol remote sensing over land: A comparison of satellite retrievals using different algorithms and instruments

An inter-comparison study of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 0.55 μm retrieved using different satellite instruments and algorithms based on the analysis of backscattered solar light is presented for a single scene over central Europe on October 13th, 2005. For the first time comparisons have been performed for as many as six instruments on multiple satellite platforms. Ten different algorithms are briefly discussed and inter-compared. It was found that on the scale of a single pixel there can be large differences in AOT retrieved over land using different retrieval techniques and instruments. However, these differences are not as pronounced for the average AOT over land. For instance, the average AOT at 0.55 μm for the area 7–12E, 49–53N was equal to 0.14 for MISR, NASA MODIS and POLDER algorithms. It is smaller by 0.01 for the ESA MERIS aerosol product and larger by 0.04 for the MERIS BAER algorithm. AOT as derived using AATSR gives on average larger values as compared to all other instruments, while SCIAMACHY retrievals underestimate the aerosol loading. These discrepancies are explained by uncertainties in a priori assumptions used in the different algorithms and differences in the sensor characteristics. Validation against AERONET shows that MERIS provides the most accurate AOT retrievals for this scene.

Spatio-temporal variability of satellite-derived aerosol optical thickness over Northeast Asia in 2004

In this study a modified Bremen aerosol retrieval (BAER) method was used to retrieve aerosol optical thickness (AOT) over both land and ocean using moderate resolution imaging spectro-radiometer (MODIS) data over Northeast Asia for a full year during 2004. Retrieved MODIS AOT data were in good agreement with data obtained from a ground-based AERONET sunphotometer ( r=0.90, linear slope=0.89). Seasonal variation analysis of AOT revealed maximum values in summer (∼0.41) and minimum values in winter (∼0.25). The contribution of each aerosol type to total AOT was estimated for each pixel. A spectral shape fitting procedure was used to select the optimum aerosol model for AOT retrieval among six aerosol types: urban, rural, maritime, tropospheric, Asian dust, and biomass burning. The spatio-temporal distribution of average AOT was analyzed for the following five sectors in Northeast Asia: (I) East China, (II) Yellow Sea, (III) Korea, (IV) East Sea, and (V) South Sea plus a part of Japan. Maximum AOT values of 0.75±0.18 were measured over sector (I) in summer, while minimum values of 0.10±0.02 were recorded over sector (IV) in winter. AOT estimates over sector (I) were much higher than those of other sectors due to an increased contribution to the total AOT by fine urban aerosol, which contributed up to 56.5% of the total AOT.