Abstract. Comparative analysis of Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR),
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS),
and Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) aerosol optical depth (AOD) products is performed
over seven AERONET stations located in the Middle East and North Africa for
the period of 2000–2015. Sites are categorized into dust, biomass burning,
and mixed aerosol conditions. MISR and MODIS AOD agree during high-dust seasons but MODIS tends
to underestimate AOD during low-dust seasons. Over dust-dominated sites,
MODIS/Terra AODs indicate a negative trend over time, while
MODIS/Aqua, MISR, and AERONET depict a positive trend. A deviation between
MODIS/Aqua and MODIS/Terra was observed regardless of the geographic location
and data sampling. The performance of MODIS is similar over the entire region
with ∼64 % of AOD within the Δτ=±0.05±0.15τAERO
confidence range. MISR AOD retrievals fall within 84 % of the same
confidence range for all sites examined here. Both MISR and MODIS capture
aerosol climatology; however few cases were observed where one of the two
sensors better captures the climatology over a certain location or AOD range
than the other sensor. AERONET Level 2.0 version 3, MODIS Collection 6.1,
and MISR V23 data have been used in analyzing the results presented in this study.