Aerosol optical depth retrieval over land using MODIS data and its application in monitoring air quality

Author(s):  
Linlu Mei ◽  
Yong Xue ◽  
Jie Guang ◽  
Yingjie Li ◽  
Ying Wan ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Alyson McPhetres ◽  
Srijan Aggarwal

The air quality monitoring network in Alaska is currently limited to ground-based observations in urban areas and national parks leaving a large proportion of the state unmonitored. The use of MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) to estimate ground-level particulate pollution concentrations has been successfully demonstrated around the world, and could potentially be used in Alaska. In this work, MODIS AOD measurements at 550 nm were validated against AOD derived from AERONET ground-based sunphotometers in Barrow and Bonanza Creek to determine if MODIS AOD from the Terra and Aqua satellites could be used to estimate ground-level particulate pollution concentrations. The MODIS AOD was obtained from MODIS collection 6 using the dark target Land and Ocean algorithms from 2000 to 2014. MODIS data could only be obtained between the months of April and October; therefore, it could only be validated for those months. Individual and combined Terra and Aqua MODIS data were considered. The results showed that MODIS collection 6 products at 10 km resolution for Terra and Aqua combined are not valid over land but are valid over the ocean. On the other hand, the individual Terra and Aqua MODIS collection 6 AOD products at 10 km resolution are valid over land individually but not when combined. Results also suggest the MODIS collection 6 AOD products at 3 km resolution are valid over land and ocean and perform better over land than the 10-km product. These findings indicate that MODIS collection 6 AOD products can be used quantitatively in air quality applications in Alaska during the summer months.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyson McPhetres ◽  
Srijan Aggarwal

The air quality monitoring network in Alaska is currently limited to ground-based observations in urban areas and national parks, leaving a large proportion of the state unmonitored. The use of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) to estimate ground-level particulate pollution concentrations has been successfully demonstrated around the world and could potentially be used in Alaska. In this work, MODIS AOD measurements at 550 nm were validated against AOD derived from two ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sunphotometers in Alaska, located at Utqiagvik (previously known as Barrow) and Bonanza Creek, to determine if MODIS AOD from the Terra and Aqua satellites could be used to estimate ground-level particulate pollution concentrations. The MODIS AOD was obtained from MODIS collection 6 using the dark target Land and Ocean algorithms from years 2000 to 2014. MODIS data could only be obtained between the months of April and October; therefore, it was only evaluated for those months. Individual and combined Terra and Aqua MODIS data were considered. The results showed that MODIS collection 6 products at 10-km resolution for Terra and Aqua combined are not valid over land but are valid over the ocean. Note that the individual Terra and Aqua MODIS collection 6 AOD products at 10-km resolution are valid over land individually but not when combined. Results also suggest the MODIS collection 6 AOD products at 3-km resolution are valid over land and ocean and perform better over land than the 10-km product. These findings indicate that MODIS collection 6 AOD products can be used quantitatively in air quality applications in Alaska during the summer months.


Author(s):  
Qijiao Xie ◽  
Qi Sun

Aerosols significantly affect environmental conditions, air quality, and public health locally, regionally, and globally. Examining the impact of land use/land cover (LULC) on aerosol optical depth (AOD) helps to understand how human activities influence air quality and develop suitable solutions. The Landsat 8 image and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol products in summer in 2018 were used in LULC classification and AOD retrieval in this study. Spatial statistics and correlation analysis about the relationship between LULC and AOD were performed to examine the impact of LULC on AOD in summer in Wuhan, China. Results indicate that the AOD distribution expressed an obvious “basin effect” in urban development areas: higher AOD values concentrated in water bodies with lower terrain, which were surrounded by the high buildings or mountains with lower AOD values. The AOD values were negatively correlated with the vegetated areas while positively correlated to water bodies and construction lands. The impact of LULC on AOD varied with different contexts in all cases, showing a “context effect”. The regression correlations among the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference water index (NDWI), and AOD in given landscape contexts were much stronger than those throughout the whole study area. These findings provide sound evidence for urban planning, land use management and air quality improvement.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel E. LeBlanc ◽  
Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer ◽  
Jens Redemann ◽  
Connor J. Flynn ◽  
Roy R. Johnson ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aerosol particles can be emitted, transported, removed, or transformed, leading to aerosol variability at scales impacting the climate (days to years and over hundreds of kilometers) or the air quality (hours to days and from meters to hundreds of kilometers). We present the temporal and spatial scales of changes in AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth), and aerosol size (using Angstrom Exponent; AE, and Fine-Mode-Fraction; FMF) over Korea during the 2016 KORUS-AQ (KORea-US Air Quality) atmospheric experiment. We use measurements and retrievals of aerosol optical properties from airborne instruments for remote sensing (4STAR; Spectrometers for Sky-Scanning Sun Tracking Atmospheric Research) and in situ (LARGE; NASA Langley Aerosol Research Group Experiment) on board the NASA DC-8, geostationary satellite (GOCI; Geostationary Ocean Color Imager; Yonsei aerosol retrieval (YAER) version 2) and reanalysis (MERRA-2; Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2). Measurements from 4STAR when flying below 500 m, show an average AOD at 501 nm of 0.43 and an average AE of 1.15 with large standard deviation (0.32 and 0.26 for AOD and AE respectively) likely due to mixing of different aerosol types (fine and coarse mode). The majority of AODs due to fine mode aerosol is observed at altitudes lower than 2 km. Even though there are large variations, for 18 out of the 20 flight days, the column AOD measurements by 4STAR along the NASA DC-8 flight trajectories matches the south-Korean regional average derived from GOCI. We also observed that, contrary to prevalent understanding, AE and FMF are more spatially variable than AOD during KORUS-AQ, even when accounting for potential sampling biases by using Monte Carlo resampling. Averaging between measurements and model for the entire KORUS-AQ period, a reduction in correlation by 15 % is 65.0 km for AOD and shorter at 22.7 km for AE. While there are observational and model differences, the predominant factor influencing spatial-temporal homogeneity is the meteorological period. High spatio-temporal variability occur during the dynamic period (25–31 May), and low spatio-temporal variability occur during blocking Rex pattern (01–07 June). The changes in spatial variability scales between AOD and FMF/AE, while inter-related, indicate that microphysical processes that impact mostly the dominant aerosol size, like aerosol particle formation, growth, and coagulation, vary at shorter scales than the aerosol concentration processes that mostly impact AOD, like aerosol emission, transport, and removal.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoqiao Wang ◽  
Jianwei Gu ◽  
Xurong Wang

<p>The frequent transport of Sahara dust toward Europe degrades the air quality and poses risk to human health. In this study we use GEOS-Chem (a global transport model) to examine the impact of Sahara dust on air quality and the consequent health effect in Europe for the year 2016–2017. The simualtion is conducted in a nested model with the native resolution of 0.25° × 0.3125° (Latitude × Logitude) over Europe (32.75°N–61.25°N, 15°W–40°E). The simulation on a global scale with a coarse horizontal resolution of 2° × 2.5° is also conducted to provide the boundary condition for the nested-grid simulation as well as aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the Sahara desert for model evaluation.</p><p>The model performance is evaluated by comparisons with surface observations including aerosol optical depth (AOD) from AERONET, and PM<sub>2.5</sub> and PM<sub>10</sub> concentrations from numerous air quality monitoring stations in European countries. Overall, the model well reproduces observed surface PM concentrations over most European countries with some underestimation in southern Europe. In addition, model AOD is highly correlated with AERONET data over both Sahara and European region.</p><p>The spatial distribution of dust concentrations, frequency of dust episodes, as well as the exposure and health effects are studied. The concentrations of Sahara dust decrease from 5–20 μg m<sup>-3</sup> in south to 0.5–1.0 μg m<sup>-3</sup> in north of Europe. Spain and Italy are most heavily influenced by Sahara dust in terms of both concentration levels and frequencies of occurrence. Strong dust episodes (>50 μg m<sup>-3</sup>) occur predominately in Southern Spain and Italy with frequency of 2–5%, while light dust episodes (>1 μg m<sup>-3</sup>) are often detected (5–30%) in Central and Western Europe.</p><p>The population-weighted dust concentrations are higher in Southern European countries (3.3–7.9 μg m<sup>-3</sup>) and lower in Western European countries (0.5–0.6 μg m<sup>-3</sup>). The health effects of exposure to dust is evaluated based on population attributable fraction (PAF). We use the relative risk (RR) value of 1.04 (95% confidence intervals: 1.00 – 1.09) per 10 µg m<sup>-3 </sup>of dust exposure based on the main model of Beelen et al. (2014). We estimate a total of 41884 (95% CI: 2110–81658) deaths per year attributed to the exposure to dust in the 13 European countries studied. Due to high contribution to PM<sub>10</sub> in Spain, Italy and Portugal, dust accounts for 44%, 27% and 22% of the total number of deaths linked to PM<sub>10</sub> exposure, respectively.</p>


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