Long-term Aerosol Optical Depth Research Articles

Analysis of the Winter AOD Trends over Iran from 2000 to 2020 and Associated Meteorological Effects

High aerosol levels pose severe air pollution and climate change challenges in Iran. Although regional aerosol optical depth (AOD) trends have been analyzed during the dusty season over Iran, the specific factors that are driving the spatio-temporal variations in winter AOD and the influence of meteorological dynamics on winter AOD trends remain unclear. This study analyzes the long-term AOD trends over Iran in winter during the period 2000–2020 using the updated Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) datasets. Our results showed that the winter AOD exhibited a significant upward trend during the period 2000–2010 followed by a significant decrease during the period 2010–2018. We found that the winter AOD trends are important over this arid region due to multiple meteorological mechanisms which also affect the following spring/summer dusty period. Ground-based observations from Aerosol Robotic Network data (AERONET) in the Middle East region display trends comparable to those of both MERRA-2 and MODIS and indicated that aeolian dust and the meteorological dynamics associated with it play a central role in winter AOD changes. Furthermore, this study indicated that a significant downward trend in winter sea level pressure (SLP) during the early period (2000–2010) induced hot and dry winds which originated in the desert regions in Iraq and Arabia and blew toward Iran, reducing relative humidity (RH) and raising the temperature and thus promoting soil drying and dust AOD accumulation. In contrast, a significant increase in winter SLP during the late period (2010–2018) induced cold and wet winds from northwestern regions which increased RH and lowered the temperature, thus reducing dust AOD. This suggests that the changes in AOD over Iran are highly influenced by seasonal meteorological variabilities. These results also highlight the importance of examining wintertime climatic variations and their effects on the dust aerosol changes over the Middle East.

Aerosol optical depth regime over megacities of the world

Abstract. Currently, 55 % of the world's population resides in urban areas and this number is projected to increase to 70 % by 2050. Urban agglomerations with a population over 10 million, characterized as megacities, are expected to be more than 100 by 2100. Such large concentrations of population could boost creativity and economic progress, but also raises several environmental challenges such as air quality degradation. In this study, we investigate the spatial and temporal variability of urban aerosol state of 81 cities with a population over 5 million, relying on daily satellite-based aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals, derived at fine spatial resolution (0.1∘×0.1∘), over an 18-year period spanning from 2003 to 2020. According to our results, the lowest long-term mean AOD values worldwide were found in European and American cities (from 0.08 to 0.20). For almost all African and Asian cities, mean AOD ranged from 0.25 up to 0.90, but a considerable dust aerosol contribution (up to 70 %) was found for some of them with associated mean dust optical depth (DOD) values reaching up to 0.4. Mostly Chinese and Indian cities tend to have higher mean AOD values in the areas surrounding their center, while the opposite was found for most of the cities in the rest of the world. High intraannual AOD variability was revealed for the eastern American cities, while lower values were found in Chinese, eastern Indian and the eastern Mediterranean cities. During the study period, statistically significant negative AOD decadal trends were found for East Asian, European and North American cities, with the greatest decrease of −0.1 to −0.3 per decade recorded for the Chinese cities, in which the maximum mean AODs (0.45–0.91) are observed. In most of the US cities, where low mean AOD <0.17 was recorded, considerable declining AOD trends were found (−30 % to −50 % per decade). For the rest of Asian, African and South American cities, statistically significant AOD increase was found, with the greatest values of +0.07 to +0.16 per decade recorded for Indian cities. In Bengaluru (India), it is reported the lowest mean AOD value (0.2) and the maximum AOD increase (+69 %), which may be partially attributed to the population growth over the study period. The agreement of the satellite-derived AOD trends against those obtained from ground-based AERONET measurements was examined. For ground-based stations within the geographical limits of the contiguous urban area of the examined cities, a 0.93 correlation for the long-term means of AOD was found and ∼75 % of the derived trends agreed in sign. It was found that the spatial homogeneity within the examined satellite domain and the location of the surface station were key factors that determined their agreement. The present study highlights the vital and essential contribution of spaceborne products to monitor aerosol burden over megacities of the planet towards fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of “sustainable cities and communities”, dealing with urban air quality.

Retrieval and validation of long-term aerosol optical depth from AVHRR data over China

ABSTRACT Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites can provide over 40 years of global remote sensing observations, which can be used to retrieve long-term aerosol optical depth (AOD). This is of great significance to the study of global climate change. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm to jointly calculate AOD and land surface properties from AVHRR observations. With assumptions that AOD doesn’t vary in adjacent space and earth surface property doesn’t vary in two days, the algorithm considered non-Lambertian surface reflection based on the shape of bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF shape) and obtained AOD and surface property by optimal estimation (OE) method. The algorithm has been applied to NOAA-7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, and 19 satellites and AVHRR-retrieved AOD with 5 × 10 km over China (15°–60° N, 70°–140°E) has been obtained from 1982 to 2016. Comparisons of AVHRR-retrieved AOD against AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) (in and around China) and China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) AOD show good consistency with 62.62% points within the uncertainty of Δτ = ± (0.05 + 0.25τ) and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.26. Further comparison of the monthly mean AOD of multiple AOD datasets in the ‘Beijing’, ‘Dalanzadgad’, ‘NCU_Taiwan’ and ‘Kanpur’ stations shows that the results of the algorithm are stable. The yearly averaged AOD data also has similar agreements with MERRA-2 (The Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2) and AVHRRDB data (AVHRR ‘Deep Blue’ aerosol data set). The multi-year mean correlation coefficient is 0.70 and 0.61 and the percentages within the uncertainty are 80.01% and 67.29% compared with MERRA-2 AOD and AVHRRDB AOD respectively.

Regime shift in aerosol optical depth and long-term aerosol radiative forcing implications over the Arabian Peninsula Region

The Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and aerosol-induced radiative forcing trends inferred for the period 1995–2019 over the Arabian Peninsula region (APR) are extensively studied using the state-of-the-art Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis data. We examine the long-term AOD change for five major aerosol species: Dust (DU), Sea Salt (SS), Sulfate (SU), Black Carbon (BC), and Organic Carbon (OC) over the APR. The MERRA-2 AOD comparisons with surface measurements show that it is capable to reproduce the AOD features over APR. The total AOD over the region shows a high value in JJA with the combined effect of DU and SU being major contributors. The total AOD over APR shows an increasing trend at a rate of ∼0.05/decade. Along with an incline in DUAOD, the anthropogenic signature on total AOD also hikes contributed mainly by the SU and OC. The increase in AOD also results in a surge in aerosol-induced atmospheric forcing (ATM) with a trend of 0.13 Wm-2 year−1 and 0.15 Wm-2 year−1 during MAM and JJA respectively. Overall, the study gives a comprehensive picture of the capability of the MERRA-2 in long-term aerosol monitoring over APR, primarily situated in the “dust-belt” region.

Time Series of Remote Sensing Data for Interaction Analysis of the Vegetation Coverage and Dust Activity in the Middle East

Motivated by the lack of research on land cover and dust activity in the Middle East, this study seeks to increase the understanding of the sensitivity of dust centers to climatic and surface conditions in this specific region. In this regard, we explore vegetation cover and dust emission interactions using 16-day long-term Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data and daily Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and conduct spatiotemporal and statistical analyses. Eight major dust hotspots were identified based on long-term AOD data (2000–2019). Despite the relatively uniform climate conditions prevailing throughout the region during the study period, there is considerable spatial variability in interannual relationships between AOD and NDVI. Three subsets of periods (2000–2006, 2007–2013, 2014–2019) were examined to assess periodic spatiotemporal changes. In the second period (2007–2013), AOD increased significantly (6% to 32%) across the studied hotspots, simultaneously with a decrease in NDVI (−0.9% to −14.3%) except in Yemen−Oman. Interannual changes over 20 years showed a strong relationship between reduced vegetation cover and increased dust intensity. The correlation between NDVI and AOD (−0.63) for the cumulative region confirms the significant effect of vegetation canopy on annual dust fluctuations. According to the results, changes in vegetation cover have an essential role in dust storm fluctuations. Therefore, this factor must be regarded along with wind speed and other climate factors in Middle East dust hotspots related to research and management efforts.

Long-term trends in Aerosol Optical Depth obtained across the globe using multi-satellite measurements

Although trends in the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) have been examined broadly but the effects due to the prevailing background conditions on these still remain uncertain, for which a multivariate regression trend model has been implemented in this study. Long-term AOD trends across the globe are obtained from the multi-satellite measurements that include MODerate resolution Imaging Spectral-radiometer (MODIS on-board Terra (T) and Aqua (A), between 2001 and 2020), Multi-angle Imaging Spectral-Radiometer (MISR, 2001–2020), and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP, 2006–2020) observations using both the linear as well as multivariate regression analysis. Before evaluating the trends, a detailed comparison has been made with the ground-based AEronet RObotic NETwork (AERONET) observations (2001–2020) obtained from more than 80 stations covering the globe. A high (above 0.7) to medium (from 0.3 to 0.7) spatial correlation is noticed among all the satellite measurements except the CALIOP (over a few sites) observations. However, MISR (CALIOP) observed AOD values underestimated (overestimated) with that measured by the AERONET AOD over the high aerosol loaded regions. In addition, Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Application version-2 (MERRA-2) AOD dataset is also able to simulate the mean as well as trend values across the globe. A decreasing trend in AOD is mostly seen in connection with the implementation of emission control policies (Eastern North America, Europe, and Eastern and Central China), reduction in forest fires (South America), and the stilling of surface winds over arid regions (Western North Africa). On the other hand, AOD trends perceived over the South Africa region have increased in comparison to the values reported earlier. Surprisingly, the CALIOP sensor has shown a rather significantly decreasing trend values over the Middle-East region. When compared, the region-wise linear regression trend analysis declined to give any statistically significant values over huge aerosol variability regions such as North Africa, South Africa, Middle-East, China, and the Indian regions. These robust findings will form a firm basis to evaluate the dependence of physical and chemical characteristics of aerosol on the observed AOD trends so that the impact of varied aerosols emission sources can be quantified accurately across the different regions.

Evaluation and comparison of CMIP6 models and MERRA-2 reanalysis AOD against Satellite observations from 2000 to 2014 over China

Rapid industrialization and urbanization along with a growing population are contributing significantly to air pollution in China. Evaluation of long-term aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from models and reanalysis, can greatly promote understanding of spatiotemporal variations in air pollution in China. To do this, AOD (550 nm) values from 2000 to 2014 were obtained from the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CIMP6), the second version of Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research, and Applications (MERRA-2), and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS; flying on the Terra satellite) combined Dark Target and Deep Blue (DTB) aerosol product. We used the Terra-MODIS DTB AOD (hereafter MODIS DTB AOD) as a standard to evaluate CMIP6 Ensemble AOD (hereafter CMIP6 AOD) and MERRA-2 reanalysis AOD (hereafter MERRA-2 AOD). Results show better correlations and smaller errors between MERRA-2 and MODIS DTB AOD, than between CMIP6 and MODIS DTB AOD, in most regions of China, at both annual and seasonal scales. However, significant under- and over-estimations in the MERRA-2 and CMIP6 AOD were also observed relative to MODIS DTB AOD. The long-term (2000–2014) MODIS DTB AOD distributions show the highest AOD over the North China Plain (0.71) followed by Central China (0.69), Yangtse River Delta (0.67), Sichuan Basin (0.64), and Pearl River Delta (0.54) regions. The lowest AOD values were recorded over the Tibetan Plateau (0.13 ± 0.01) followed by Qinghai (0.19 ± 0.03) and the Gobi Desert (0.21 ± 0.03). Large amounts of sand and dust particles emitted from natural sources (the Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts) may result in higher AOD in spring compared to summer, autumn, and winter. Trends were also calculated for 2000–2005, for 2006–2010 (when China introduced strict air pollution control policies during the 11th Five Year Plan or FYP), and for 2011–2014 (during the 12th FYP). An increasing trend in MODIS DTB AOD was observed throughout the country during 2000–2014. The uncontrolled industrialization, urbanization, and rapid economic development that mostly occurred from 2000 to 2005 probably contributed to the overall increase in AOD. Finally, China's air pollution control policies helped to reduce AOD in most regions of the country; this was more evident during the 12th FYP period (2011–2014) than during the 11th FYP period (2006–2010). Therefore this study strongly advises the authority to retain or extend these policies in the future for improving air quality.

Investigation of Possible MODIS AOD Anomalies as Earthquake Precursors for Global Earthquakes

Abstract Earthquakes are among the major and destructive natural disasters on Earth. Thus, it is important to investigate whether the occurrence of earthquakes affects the behavior of atmospheric parameters. This study aims to examine the aerosol variations in the atmosphere from a multi-year perspective as the earthquake precursor for the eight Mw > 7.0 earthquakes over different locations on the world. In this study, we analyzed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data as an earthquake precursor. In this context, 4-year (the earthquake year and the previous 3 years) epicentral AOD values were evaluated for each earthquake. As an anomaly indicator, ±2σ (95% confidence level) interval was utilized after applying 15-day moving average filter to the AOD time series. The results showed that any significant pre-seismic fluctuation or distinctive signal was not detected for any of the events, except for the 2017 Iraq Mw = 7.3 earthquake. However, identical anomalies are also observed 8–10 times in a year, which are not related to an earthquake. Thus, it can be assumed as a coincidence rather than a precursory signal. As a consequence, according to the scientific methodology (long-term AOD analysis) used in this study, sufficient precursory events could not be associated with the earthquakes to confirm the hypothesis that pre-seismic aerosol anomalies occur in the atmosphere.

Using particle swarm optimization to improve visibility-aerosol optical depth retrieval method

In view of the lack of long-term AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) data, PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm is introduced and joint used with NLSM (the nonlinear least square method) to improve visibility-AOD retrieval method, which is referred to as the PSO-M-Elterman model and significantly increases data available rate by 8% and correlation by about 20% with the true value in the experimental group. The mean absolute error, the proportion of the smaller absolute error and the root mean square error in the PSO-M-Elterman model experimental group are 0.0314 and 91.23%, 0.0509 respectively, which significantly outperforms other groups. The main increase of AOD was found in the eastern region (South China, East China, Central China) and Taklimakan with the trend coefficients of 2.67, 2.46, 2.13, and 1.45 (×10−3 yr−1) in recent 55 years, which may not be interpreted by the influence of relative humidity. Long-term change of AOD in east China is mainly caused by human activity, and the AOD is higher in cities with a larger population and more human activity. The PSO-M-Elterman model can maximize the advantage of visibility sequence length to obtain long-term AOD inversion results.

Assessment of the Representativeness of MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth Products at Different Temporal Scales Using Global AERONET Measurements

Assessments of long-term changes of air quality and global radiative forcing at a large scale heavily rely on satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) datasets, particularly their temporal binning products. Although some attempts focusing on the validation of long-term satellite AOD have been conducted, there is still a lack of comprehensive quantification and understanding of the representativeness of satellite AOD at different temporal binning scales. Here, we evaluated the performances of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOD products at various temporal scales by comparing the MODIS AOD datasets from both the Terra and Aqua satellites with the entire global AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) observation archive between 2000 and 2017. The uncertainty levels of the MODIS hourly and daily AOD products were similarly high, indicating that MODIS AOD retrievals could be used to represent daily aerosol conditions. The MODIS data showed the reduced quality when integrated from the daily to monthly scale, where the relative mean bias (RMB) changed from 1.09 to 1.21 for MODIS Terra and from 1.04 to 1.17 for MODIS Aqua, respectively. The limitation of valid data availability within a month appeared to be the primary reason for the increased uncertainties in the monthly binning products, and the monthly data associated uncertainties could be reduced when the number of valid AOD retrievals reached 15 times in one month. At all three temporal scales, the uncertainty levels of satellite AOD products decreased with increasing AOD values. The results of this study could provide crucial information for satellite AOD users to better understand the reliability of different temporal AOD binning products and associated uncertainties in their derived long-term trends.

Effect of lockdown due to SARS COVID-19 on aerosol optical depth (AOD) over urban and mining regions in India

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-COronaVIrus Diseases 2019 (SARS-COVID-19) pandemic has posed a serious threat to human health (death) and substantial economic losses across the globe. It was however presumed that extreme preventive measures of entire lockdown in India might have reduced the air pollution level and therefore decreased the aerosol optical depth (AOD). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based Multi-angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) daily AOD product was deployed to investigate the change in AOD level during lockdown phases across the Indian Territory as compared to the long-term mean AOD level (2000–2019) of the same periods. The key findings of the study revealed that AOD level over the Indian Territory is greatly reduced (~45%) during the lockdown periods as compared to the long-term mean AOD level (2000–2019). Furthermore, a noteworthy negative AOD anomaly (~6 to 37%) was observed across the four metropolitan cities in India during the entire lockdown period (25th March to 15th May 2020). However, coal mining regions of the various coalfields in India showed a positive anomaly (~+11 to 40%) during the lockdown periods due to ongoing mining operations. In a nutshell, the study results indicated a huge drop in the AOD level over Indian Territory during lockdown periods. It is expected that the pandemic can influence some policy decisions to propose air pollution control methods. Lockdown events possibly may play a crucial role as a potential solution for air pollution abatement in the future. It may not be uncommon in future when the governments may implement deliberately selective lockdowns at pollution hotspots to control the pollution level.

Long-term AOD trend assessment over the Eastern Mediterranean region: A comparative study including a new merged aerosol product

Abstract This study conducts a comprehensive estimation of aerosol optical depth (AOD) trend and a classification of types of aerosols over the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region using the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) AOD and Angstrom exponent (AE) during 1980–2018 and MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Collection 6.1/Terra and Aqua products during 2001–2018 and 2003–2018, respectively. Seven countries and sixteen cities were selected for the analysis. Evaluation of MODIS and MERRA-2 AOD with nine stations from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) AOD indicated spatial agreement. A new merged AOD product of MERRA-2 and MODIS (MMM) was generated. The performance of MMM not only indicated a better agreement than MODIS and MERRA-2, but also showed an efficient estimation compared to AERONET. Overall, MERRA-2 was able to quantitatively reproduce seasonal and annual AOD trends on regional scale compared to MODIS and MMM though slight differences were present in some areas. High AOD loading was mainly detected in the areas of natural mineral dust during spring and summer. Regional aerosol loading was relatively low in winter and autumn. Our results indicated that the AOD had an upward trend in the EM region during 1998–2018. Furthermore, AOD trend shifted from upward to downward around 2006 over all the countries. Our analysis revealed a dominance of clean maritime (42.95%) over the eastern part and the mixed type aerosols (34.93 and 49.13%) over the northern and southern parts. This suggests that the EM region is influenced by a variety of aerosols.

Characteristics of aerosol optical depth over land types in central Asia

Aerosols are an important contributor to global atmospheric changes and have critical effects on the climate system. Regionally, aerosols in central Asia comprise a significant portion of global aerosols. Based on aerosol optical depth (AOD)Level 2 daily product data and land cover type product data, the long-term AOD characteristics of six major land use/cover types and their relationships with landscape metrics are discussed. Contribution analysis is applied to quantitatively estimate the effects of land use/cover on regional AOD over central Asia. The results show that series of daily AODs over six land uses/covers display remarkable annual cyclic variations and obvious seasonal changes. The annual average AODs for barren land and cropland are highest, followed by regional AODs. There are different frequencies and times of occurrence for high AOD values of various land types. Urban areas are one of the major contributors to the regional atmosphere in winter; grasslands have a great influence on regional AOD decreases. Barren land always has a high contribution to the regional AOD. The land use types affected by anthropogenic activities were smaller contributors to regional aerosols than barren lands affected by climate factors. This paper advances the understanding of relationship between aerosols and land use/cover and facilitates land use decision making.

Long-term aerosol optical depth trend over Iran and identification of dominant aerosol types

The paper focuses on analysis of long-term changes of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Iran. It describes contributions of dominant aerosol in the aerosol load over Iran covering the period 1980–2018. For this purpose, a long-term AOD dataset from the reanalysis-based Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2), the satellite-based Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (the new version of MODIS/Terra and Aqua) as well as a new AOD product (MERRA-2 MODIS merged) were used. The ground-based AOD measurements of the five Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites used for validation demonstrated better consistency of the MERRA-2 MODIS merged (MMM) product. Analysis of these datasets demonstrated high AOD in the southwest of Iran because of the proximity to the major source areas of natural mineral dust in spring and summer. In contrast, low AOD was mostly observed along the high elevation lands in the northern and western highlands. The trend analysis of AODs revealed differences between the AOD datasets, but agree on the positive trends over southwestern Iran and negative trend in northern Iran. Classification of major aerosol types indicated that the clean marine and mixed aerosols were the dominant aerosol types during the cold and hot seasons, respectively, and the increase of desert dust around 2010 was another obvious result in spring and summer. Our results indicate that the variation in dust aerosol has a key role in determining the AOD long-term changes in Iran which has contributed in regional climate change and environmental evolutions.

Evaluation of the MISR fine resolution aerosol product using MODIS, MISR, and ground observations over China

Recently, NASA's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) team released the Version 23 (V23) 4.4-km Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) product, which has better spatial resolution than V22 at 17.6 km. However, its quality has not been validated in China. Here, V23 products for different spatiotemporal domains are obtained for validation against Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) AOD measurements for 29 sites from 2008 to 2017. Based on the national daily mean, V23 AOD yields a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.902 with AERONET; 59.45% of retrievals fall within the expected error (=EE; ±0.05 or ±0.2×AOD). A mean error (ME) of −0.0605 with 24.11% of retrievals falling below the EE indicates that MISR data are still underestimated at high AODs. The sample numbers and accuracies of spatially averaged 17.6-km and 50-km data are greatly improved relative to V22. The seasonal mean of V23 retrievals = EE in fall and winter are highest, followed by those in summer and spring; the validation results at 17.6 km are generally better than those at 50 km. By region, V23 retrievals = EE in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Pearl River Delta (PRD) regions are 68.87%, 61.43%, and 73.13% respectively, while that of Taiwan is below 60% (55.75%). No V22 records exist in PRD, and V23 products over other regions in all seasons perform well; V22 retrievals in summer are also recommended. Compared with Terra/MODIS 3-km AOD in 2016, the V23 product has a slightly higher R value (0.925) with AERONET than MODIS (0.909). The MISR AOD bias is lower, and MODIS AOD is overestimated relative to the ground truth; both present consistent seasonality characteristics (spring > winter > summer > autumn), with the maximum in March and minimum in August. To investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics over long-term AOD, MISR V23 4.4-km AOD can be used in combination with other observation data.

LONG TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF THE MODIS AEROSOL PRODUCT OVER HUAIHAI ECONOMIC REGION IN CHINA

Abstract. The Huaihai Economic Region (HER, 32.5–36.5°N, 114–121°E) with a land area of 178,000 km2, which contains 20 cities, is one of the earliest regional economic cooperative organizations in China. The huge population (100 million, about 7% of the China’s population), local heavy industries, chemical enterprises and vehicle emissions have resulted in serious air pollution. In this paper, a long-term aerosol optical depth (AOD) data set from 2000 to 2018 over HER with 10 km spatial resolution has been produced and analyzed from the latest version of MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) aerosol products. Validation results show that MODIS AOD has a strong correlation relationship (r = 0.94, slope = 0.92) with Aeronet Robotic Network (AERONET) over HER. The seasonal average AOD maps indicate that the high AOD values mainly occurred with a banding distribution from southeastern to northwestern HER, with AODs larger in summer and spring than in fall and winter. Temporally, the monthly average AOD has increased since 2000 and reached the highest level in 2011 (+0.02/year); then it has obviously declined from 2012 to 2018 (−0.05/year), owing to strict air pollution control implemented since 2012. In general, the annual average AOD over HER is 0.71 for the past nearly 20 years, and in 2018, the annual average AOD firstly lower than that in 2000. The study suggests that there has been a slightly improvement in air quality over HER and long-term and sustainable efforts should be made.

Aerosol optical depth comparison between GAW-PFR and AERONET-Cimel radiometers from long-term (2005–2015) 1 min synchronous measurements

Abstract. A comprehensive comparison of more than 70 000 synchronous 1 min aerosol optical depth (AOD) data from three Global Atmosphere Watch precision-filter radiometers (GAW-PFR), traceable to the World AOD reference, and 15 Aerosol Robotic Network Cimel radiometers (AERONET-Cimel), calibrated individually with the Langley plot technique, was performed for four common or “near” wavelengths, 380, 440, 500 and 870 nm, in the period 2005–2015. The goal of this study is to assess whether, despite the marked technical differences between both networks (AERONET, GAW-PFR) and the number of instruments used, their long-term AOD data are comparable and consistent. The percentage of data meeting the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) traceability requirements (95 % of the AOD differences of an instrument compared to the WMO standards lie within specific limits) is >92 % at 380 nm, >95 % at 440 nm and 500 nm, and 98 % at 870 nm, with the results being quite similar for both AERONET version 2 (V2) and version 3 (V3). For the data outside these limits, the contribution of calibration and differences in the calculation of the optical depth contribution due to Rayleigh scattering and O3 and NO2 absorption have a negligible impact. For AOD >0.1, a small but non-negligible percentage (∼1.9 %) of the AOD data outside the WMO limits at 380 nm can be partly assigned to the impact of dust aerosol forward scattering on the AOD calculation due to the different field of view of the instruments. Due to this effect the GAW-PFR provides AOD values, which are ∼3 % lower at 380 nm and ∼2 % lower at 500 nm compared with AERONET-Cimel. The comparison of the Ångström exponent (AE) shows that under non-pristine conditions (AOD >0.03 and AE <1) the AE differences remain <0.1. This long-term comparison shows an excellent traceability of AERONET-Cimel AOD with the World AOD reference at 440, 500 and 870 nm channels and a fairly good agreement at 380 nm, although AOD should be improved in the UV range.

A Long-Term Historical Aerosol Optical Depth Data Record (1982–2011) Over China From AVHRR

A long-term historical aerosol optical depth (AOD) data set from 1982 to 2011 over China (15–45° N; 75–135° E) with 0.1 spatial resolution has been produced from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Atmospheres—Extended level-2B data. The spatial distribution pattern shows that high AOD values are found in central and eastern China over the entire period with AODs larger in summer and spring than in autumn and winter. As the high-quality products from AERONET were absent for this period over mainland China, AOD data obtained using the broadband extinction method from solar radiation stations have been used to verify the quality of the AVHRR AOD data set over China. The intercomparison results show that the interannual variation of AOD has been well captured in the variation curve of the AOD monthly mean and the variation trend is also consistent over the whole period. The correlation coefficient of the monthly mean is mostly larger than 0.55, the agreement index is larger than 0.57, and the relative error is less than 21%. Both AVHRR and visibility data sets show high values in regions with rapid economic development. Using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer AOD data as references, it is found that AVHRR AOD from this paper has better accuracy in general than that from Deep Blue (DB) algorithm over China, especially over eastern and southern China, while DB provides more coverage especially over bright surface such as northwest China. This long-term historic AOD data set can be used together with other AOD data sets to study the climate and environmental changes, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

Long-term (1995–2018) aerosol optical depth derived using ground based AERONET and SKYNET measurements from aerosol aged-background sites

We examined long-term aerosol optical depth (AOD) trends over 53 sites across the globe which comprise 49 sites from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and 4 sites from the Sky radiometer Network (SKYNET) during 1995–2018. Most of these sites are located in remote and isolated aged-background regions, and few are in urban/semi-urban sites having averaged AOD ∼0.1 at 500 nm. These selected sites have a global distribution including tropical, mid-latitudes, high-latitudes and Polar regions. Among them, there are 14 high-altitude stations (∼1028–5050 m amsl), including Himalayan and Polar regions. The main objective of the present work is to evaluate the AOD trends over the aged-background sites across the globe. We found that significant number of sites located in North-South America, Europe, Arctic and Australia have statistically significant and negative trends varied from −6.3x10−3 to −1.0x10−3 AOD year−1. The negative trends over these sites could be attributed to reduction in anthropogenic emission. Furthermore, there are mixed trends of positive as well as negative over Asian and southern oceanic regions including Antarctica. Some of the trends are weak and statistically non-significant, probably due to non-availability of long-term ground based data. However, the AOD trends over these regions show increasing tendency with statistically significant trends of 8.0x10−4 to 4.7x10−3 AOD year−1. The present study has also many important aspects on global and regional climate change at high-mountain and aged-background sites in particular, where the satellite based measurements are inaccurate and biased due to extremely low AOD.

Can MODIS detect trends in aerosol optical depth over land?

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite has been collecting valuable data about the Earth system for more than 14 years, and one of the benefits of this is that it has made it possible to detect the long-term variation in aerosol loading across the globe. However, the long-term aerosol optical depth (AOD) trends derived from MODIS need careful validation and assessment, especially over land. Using AOD products with at least 70 months’ worth of measurements collected during 2002–15 at 53 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites over land, Mann–Kendall (MK) trends in AOD were derived and taken as the ground truth data for evaluating the corresponding results from MODIS onboard Aqua. The results showed that the AERONET AOD trends over all sites in Europe and North America, as well as most sites in Africa and Asia, can be reproduced by MODIS/Aqua. However, disagreement in AOD trends between MODIS and AERONET was found at a few sites in Australia and South America. The AOD trends calculated from AERONET instantaneous data at the MODIS overpass times were consistent with those from AERONET daily data, which suggests that the AOD trends derived from satellite measurements of 1–2 overpasses may be representative of those from daily measurements.