scholarly journals Two decades of satellite observations of AOD over mainland China using ATSR-2, AATSR and MODIS/Terra: data set evaluation and large-scale patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1573-1592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit de Leeuw ◽  
Larisa Sogacheva ◽  
Edith Rodriguez ◽  
Konstantinos Kourtidis ◽  
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Modis Aod ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Along Track ◽  
Aerosol Properties

Abstract. The retrieval of aerosol properties from satellite observations provides their spatial distribution over a wide area in cloud-free conditions. As such, they complement ground-based measurements by providing information over sparsely instrumented areas, albeit that significant differences may exist in both the type of information obtained and the temporal information from satellite and ground-based observations. In this paper, information from different types of satellite-based instruments is used to provide a 3-D climatology of aerosol properties over mainland China, i.e., vertical profiles of extinction coefficients from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), a lidar flying aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite and the column-integrated extinction (aerosol optical depth – AOD) available from three radiometers: the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Along-Track Scanning Radiometer version 2 (ATSR-2), Advanced Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) (together referred to as ATSR) and NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite, together spanning the period 1995–2015. AOD data are retrieved from ATSR using the ATSR dual view (ADV) v2.31 algorithm, while for MODIS Collection 6 (C6) the AOD data set is used that was obtained from merging the AODs obtained from the dark target (DT) and deep blue (DB) algorithms, further referred to as the DTDB merged AOD product. These data sets are validated and differences are compared using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) version 2 L2.0 AOD data as reference. The results show that, over China, ATSR slightly underestimates the AOD and MODIS slightly overestimates the AOD. Consequently, ATSR AOD is overall lower than that from MODIS, and the difference increases with increasing AOD. The comparison also shows that neither of the ATSR and MODIS AOD data sets is better than the other one everywhere. However, ATSR ADV has limitations over bright surfaces which the MODIS DB was designed for. To allow for comparison of MODIS C6 results with previous analyses where MODIS Collection 5.1 (C5.1) data were used, also the difference between the C6 and C5.1 merged DTDB data sets from MODIS/Terra over China is briefly discussed. The AOD data sets show strong seasonal differences and the seasonal features vary with latitude and longitude across China. Two-decadal AOD time series, averaged over all of mainland China, are presented and briefly discussed. Using the 17 years of ATSR data as the basis and MODIS/Terra to follow the temporal evolution in recent years when the environmental satellite Envisat was lost requires a comparison of the data sets for the overlapping period to show their complementarity. ATSR precedes the MODIS time series between 1995 and 2000 and shows a distinct increase in the AOD over this period. The two data series show similar variations during the overlapping period between 2000 and 2011, with minima and maxima in the same years. MODIS extends this time series beyond the end of the Envisat period in 2012, showing decreasing AOD.

scholarly journals Two decades of satellite observations of AOD over mainland China

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerrit de Leeuw ◽  
Larisa Sogacheva ◽  
Edith Rodriguez ◽  
Konstantinos Kourtidis ◽  
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Modis Aod ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Aerosol Properties ◽  
Better Than

Abstract. The retrieval of aerosol properties from satellite observations provides their spatial distribution over a wide area in cloud-free conditions. As such, they complement ground-based measurements by providing information over sparsely instrumented areas, albeit that significant differences may exist in both the type of information obtained and the temporal information from satellite and ground-based observations. In this paper, information from different types of satellite-based instruments is used to provide a 3-D climatology of aerosol properties over mainland China, i.e. vertical profiles of extinction coefficients from CALIOP, a lidar flying on board the CALIPSO satellite, and the column-integrated extinction (AOD), available from three radiometers: ESA’s ATSR-2, AATSR (together referred to as ATSR) and NASA's MODIS/Terra, together spanning the period 1995–2015. AOD data are retrieved from ATSR using the ADV v2.31 algorithm while for MODIS the Collection 6 (C6) DTDB merged AOD data set is used. These data sets are validated and differences are compared using AERONET version 2 L2.0 AOD data as reference. The results show that, over China, MODIS slightly overestimates the AOD and ATSR slightly underestimates the AOD. Consequently, MODIS AOD is overall higher than that from ATSR, and the difference increases with increasing AOD. The comparison also shows that none of the ATSR and MODIS AOD data sets is better than the other one everywhere. However, ATSR ADV has limitations over bright surfaces where the MODIS DB was designed for. To allow for comparison of MODIS C6 results with previous analyses where MODIS Collection 5.1 (C5.1) data were used, also the difference between the C6 and C5.1 DTDB merged data sets from MODIS/Terra over China is briefly discussed. The AOD data sets show strong seasonal differences and the seasonal features vary with latitude and longitude across China. Two-decadal AOD time series, averaged over the whole mainland China, are presented and briefly discussed. Using the 17 years of ATSR data as the basis and MODIS/Terra to follow the temporal evolution in recent years when ENVISAT was lost requires a comparison of the data sets for the overlapping period to show their complementarity. ATSR precedes the MODIS time series between 1995 and 2000 and shows a distinct increase in the AOD over this period. The two data series show similar variations during the overlapping period between 2000 and 2011, with minima and maxima in the same years. MODIS extends this time series beyond the end of the ENVISAT period in 2012, showing decreasing AOD.

scholarly journals The SPARC water vapour assessment II: Comparison of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour time series observed from satellites

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Khosrawi ◽  
Stefan Lossow ◽  
Gabriele P. Stiller ◽  
Karen H. Rosenlof ◽  
Joachim Urban ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Water Vapour ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Future ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Satellite Instruments

Abstract. Time series of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour using 33 data sets from 15 different satellite instruments were compared in the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II). This comparison aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the typical uncertainties in the observational database that can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies addressing e.g stratospheric water vapour trends. The time series comparisons are presented for the three latitude bands, the Antarctic (80°–70° S), the tropics (15° S–15° N) and the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes (50° N–60° N) at four different altitudes (0.1, 3, 10 and 80 hPa) covering the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The combined temporal coverage of observations from the 15 satellite instruments allowed considering the time period 1986–2014. In addition to the qualitative comparison of the time series, the agreement of the data sets is assessed quantitatively in the form of the spread (i.e. the difference between the maximum and minimum volume mixing ratio among the data sets), the (Pearson) correlation coefficient and the drift (i.e. linear changes of the difference between time series over time). Generally, good agreement between the time series was found in the middle stratosphere while larger differences were found in the lower mesosphere and near the tropopause. Concerning the latitude bands, the largest differences were found in the Antarctic while the best agreement was found for the tropics. From our assessment we find that all data sets can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies addressing e.g. stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour variability and trends when data set specific characteristics (e.g. a drift) and restrictions (e.g. temporal and spatial coverage) are taken into account.

scholarly journals The SPARC water vapour assessment II: comparison of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour time series observed from satellites

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 4435-4463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Khosrawi ◽  
Stefan Lossow ◽  
Gabriele P. Stiller ◽  
Karen H. Rosenlof ◽  
Joachim Urban ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Water Vapour ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Satellite Instruments

Abstract. Time series of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour using 33 data sets from 15 different satellite instruments were compared in the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II). This comparison aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the typical uncertainties in the observational database that can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies, e.g addressing stratospheric water vapour trends. The time series comparisons are presented for the three latitude bands, the Antarctic (80∘–70∘ S), the tropics (15∘ S–15∘ N) and the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes (50∘–60∘ N) at four different altitudes (0.1, 3, 10 and 80 hPa) covering the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The combined temporal coverage of observations from the 15 satellite instruments allowed the consideration of the time period 1986–2014. In addition to the qualitative comparison of the time series, the agreement of the data sets is assessed quantitatively in the form of the spread (i.e. the difference between the maximum and minimum volume mixing ratios among the data sets), the (Pearson) correlation coefficient and the drift (i.e. linear changes of the difference between time series over time). Generally, good agreement between the time series was found in the middle stratosphere while larger differences were found in the lower mesosphere and near the tropopause. Concerning the latitude bands, the largest differences were found in the Antarctic while the best agreement was found for the tropics. From our assessment we find that most data sets can be considered in future observational and modelling studies, e.g. addressing stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour variability and trends, if data set specific characteristics (e.g. drift) and restrictions (e.g. temporal and spatial coverage) are taken into account.

scholarly journals Six years of total ozone column measurements from SCIAMACHY nadir observations

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lerot ◽  
M. Van Roozendael ◽  
J. van Geffen ◽  
J. van Gent ◽  
C. Fayt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Total Ozone ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Ozone Data ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
German Aerospace ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Total O3 columns have been retrieved from six years of SCIAMACHY nadir UV radiance measurements using SDOAS, an adaptation of the GDOAS algorithm previously developed at BIRA-IASB for the GOME instrument. GDOAS and SDOAS have been implemented by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in the version 4 of the GOME Data Processor (GDP) and in version 3 of the SCIAMACHY Ground Processor (SGP), respectively. The processors are being run at the DLR processing centre on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). We first focus on the description of the SDOAS algorithm with particular attention to the impact of uncertainties on the reference O3 absorption cross-sections. Second, the resulting SCIAMACHY total ozone data set is globally evaluated through large-scale comparisons with results from GOME and OMI as well as with ground-based correlative measurements. The various total ozone data sets are found to agree within 2% on average. However, a negative trend of 0.2–0.4%/year has been identified in the SCIAMACHY O3 columns; this probably originates from instrumental degradation effects that have not yet been fully characterized.

scholarly journals Loi and Gong Low-Degree Rotational Splittings

1998 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 167-168
Author(s):  
T. Appourchaux ◽  
M.C. Rabello-Soares ◽  
L. Gizon
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
The Other ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Fourier Spectra

Two different data sets have been used to derive low-degree rotational splittings. One data set comes from the Luminosity Oscillations Imager of VIRGO on board SOHO; the observation starts on 27 March 96 and ends on 26 March 97, and are made of intensity time series of 12 pixels (Appourchaux et al, 1997, Sol. Phys., 170, 27). The other data set was kindly made available by the GONG project; the observation starts on 26 August 1995 and ends on 21 August 1996, and are made of complex Fourier spectra of velocity time series for l = 0 − 9. For the GONG data, the contamination of l = 1 from the spatial aliases of l = 6 and l = 9 required some cleaning. To achieve this, we applied the inverse of the leakage matrix of l = 1, 6 and 9 to the original Fourier spectra of the same degrees; cleaning of all 3 degrees was achieved simultaneously (Appourchaux and Gizon, 1997, these proceedings).

A Ccomparison of sedigraph and pipette methods for soil particle-size analysis

Soil Research ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 407 ◽  
Author(s):  
GD Buchan ◽  
KS Grewal ◽  
JJ Claydon ◽  
RJ Mcpherson
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Particle Size Analysis ◽  
Size Analysis ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Total Iron Content ◽  
Data Set ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Difference

The X-ray attenuation (Sedigraph) method for particle-size analysis is known to consistently estimate a finer size distribution than the pipette method. The objectives of this study were to compare the two methods, and to explore the reasons for their divergence. The methods are compared using two data sets from measurements made independently in two New Zealand laboratories, on two different sets of New Zealand soils, covering a range of textures and parent materials. The Sedigraph method gave systematically greater mass percentages at the four measurement diameters (20, 10, 5 and 2 �m). For one data set, the difference between clay (<2 �m) percentages from the two methods is shown to be positively correlated (R2 = 0.625) with total iron content of the sample, for all but one of the soils. This supports a novel hypothesis that the typically greater concentration of Fe (a strong X-ray absorber) in smaller size fractions is the major factor causing the difference. Regression equations are presented for converting the Sedigraph data to their pipette equivalents.

scholarly journals An assessment of Bayesian bias estimator for numerical weather prediction

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1013-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Son ◽  
D. Hou ◽  
Z. Toth
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Numerical Weather Prediction ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Forecast Errors ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Numerical Weather

Abstract. Various statistical methods are used to process operational Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) products with the aim of reducing forecast errors and they often require sufficiently large training data sets. Generating such a hindcast data set for this purpose can be costly and a well designed algorithm should be able to reduce the required size of these data sets. This issue is investigated with the relatively simple case of bias correction, by comparing a Bayesian algorithm of bias estimation with the conventionally used empirical method. As available forecast data sets are not large enough for a comprehensive test, synthetically generated time series representing the analysis (truth) and forecast are used to increase the sample size. Since these synthetic time series retained the statistical characteristics of the observations and operational NWP model output, the results of this study can be extended to real observation and forecasts and this is confirmed by a preliminary test with real data. By using the climatological mean and standard deviation of the meteorological variable in consideration and the statistical relationship between the forecast and the analysis, the Bayesian bias estimator outperforms the empirical approach in terms of the accuracy of the estimated bias, and it can reduce the required size of the training sample by a factor of 3. This advantage of the Bayesian approach is due to the fact that it is less liable to the sampling error in consecutive sampling. These results suggest that a carefully designed statistical procedure may reduce the need for the costly generation of large hindcast datasets.

Uncertainty of Climatol adjustment algorithm for daily time series of additive climate variables

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleg Skrynyk ◽  
Enric Aguilar ◽  
José A. Guijarro ◽  
Sergiy Bubin
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Climate Variables ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Raw Data ◽  
Climate Signal ◽  
Daily Time Series ◽  
Daily Time

&lt;p&gt;Before using climatological time series in research studies, it is necessary to perform their quality control and homogenization in order to remove possible artefacts (inhomogeneities) usually present in the raw data sets. In the vast majority of cases, the homogenization procedure allows to improve the consistency of the data, which then can be verified by means of the statistical comparison of the raw and homogenized time series. However, a new question then arises: how far are the homogenized data from the true climate signal or, in other words, what errors could still be present in homogenized data?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The main objective of our work is to estimate the uncertainty produced by the adjustment algorithm of the widely used Climatol homogenization software when homogenizing daily time series of the additive climate variables. We focused our efforts on the minimum and maximum air temperature. In order to achieve our goal we used a benchmark data set created by the INDECIS&lt;sup&gt;*&lt;/sup&gt; project. The benchmark contains clean data, extracted from an output of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (version 2) driven by Hadley Global Environment Model 2 - Earth System, and inhomogeneous data, created by introducing realistic breaks and errors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The statistical evaluation of discrepancies between the homogenized (by means of Climatol with predefined break points) and clean data sets was performed using both a set of standard parameters and a metrics introduced in our work. All metrics used clearly identifies the main features of errors (systematic and random) present in the homogenized time series. We calculated the metrics for every time series (only over adjusted segments) as well as their averaged values as measures of uncertainties in the whole data set.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In order to determine how the two key parameters of the raw data collection, namely the length of time series and station density, influence the calculated measures of the adjustment error we gradually decreased the length of the period and number of stations in the area under study. The total number of cases considered was 56, including 7 time periods (1950-2005, 1954-2005, &amp;#8230;, 1974-2005) and 8 different quantities of stations (100, 90, &amp;#8230;, 30). Additionally, in order to find out how stable are the calculated metrics for each of the 56 cases and determine their confidence intervals we performed 100 random permutations in the introduced inhomogeneity time series and repeated our calculations With that the total number of homogenization exercises performed was 5600 for each of two climate variables.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lastly, the calculated metrics were compared with the corresponding values, obtained for raw time series. The comparison showed some substantial improvement of the metric values after homogenization in each of the 56 cases considered (for the both variables).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;-------------------&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;*&lt;/sup&gt;INDECIS is a part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). The work has been partially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan (Grant BR05236454) and Nazarbayev University (Grant 090118FD5345).&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals First intercalibration of column-averaged methane from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network and the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1355-1379
Author(s):  
F. Forster ◽  
R. Sussmann ◽  
M. Rettinger ◽  
N. M. Deutscher ◽  
D. W. T. Griffith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Calibration Factor ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Composition Change ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Difference Time

Abstract. We present the intercalibration of dry-air column-averaged mole fractions of methane (XCH4) retrieved from solar FTIR measurements of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) in the mid-infrared (MIR) versus near-infrared (NIR) soundings from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). The study uses multi-annual quasi-coincident MIR and NIR measurements from the stations Garmisch, Germany (47.48° N, 11.06° E, 743 m a.s.l.) and Wollongong, Australia (34.41° S, 150.88° E, 30 m a.s.l.). Direct comparison of the retrieved MIR and NIR time series shows a phase shift in XCH4 seasonality, i.e. a significant time-dependent bias leading to a standard deviation (stdv) of the difference time series (NIR-MIR) of 8.4 ppb. After eliminating differences in a prioris by using ACTM-simulated profiles as a common prior, the seasonalities of the (corrected) MIR and NIR time series agree within the noise (stdv = 5.2 ppb for the difference time series). The difference time series (NIR-MIR) do not show a significant trend. Therefore it is possible to use a simple scaling factor for the intercalibration without a time-dependent linear or seasonal component. Using the Garmisch and Wollongong data together, we obtain an overall calibration factor MIR/NIR = 0.9926(18). The individual calibration factors per station are 0.9940(14) for Garmisch and 0.9893(40) for Wollongong. They agree within their error bars with the overall calibration factor which can therefore be used for both stations. Our results suggest that after applying the proposed intercalibration concept to all stations performing both NIR and MIR measurements, it should be possible to obtain one refined overall intercalibration factor for the two networks. This would allow to set up a harmonized NDACC and TCCON XCH4 data set which can be exploited for joint trend studies, satellite validation, or the inverse modeling of sources and sinks.

scholarly journals Evaluative application of UKCP09‐based downscaled future weather years to simulate overheating risk in typical English homes

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajat Gupta ◽  
Matthew Gregg ◽  
Hu Du ◽  
Katie Williams
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Simulation Modelling ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Building Simulation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Difference

PurposeTo critically compare three future weather year (FWY) downscaling approaches, based on the 2009 UK Climate Projections, used for climate change impact and adaptation analysis in building simulation software.Design/methodology/approachThe validity of these FWYs is assessed through dynamic building simulation modelling to project future overheating risk in typical English homes in 2050s and 2080s.FindingsThe modelling results show that the variation in overheating projections is far too significant to consider the tested FWY data sets equally suitable for the task.Research and practical implicationsIt is recommended that future research should consider harmonisation of the downscaling approaches so as to generate a unified data set of FWYs to be used for a given location and climate projection. If FWY are to be used in practice, live projects will need viable and reliable FWY on which to base their adaptation decisions. The difference between the data sets tested could potentially lead to different adaptation priorities specifically with regard to time series and adaptation phasing through the life of a building.Originality/valueThe paper investigates the different results derived from FWY application to building simulation. The outcome and implications are important considerations for research and practice involved in FWY data use in building simulation intended for climate change adaptation modelling.

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