Urban Visible/SWIR surface reflectance ratios from satellite and sun photometer measurements in Mexico City

Abstract. The surface reflectance ratio between the visible (VIS) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) radiation is an important quantity for the retrieval of the aerosol optical depth (τa) from the MODIS sensor data. Based on empirically determined VIS/SWIR ratios, MODIS τa retrieval uses the surface reflectance in the SWIR band (2.1 μm), where the interaction between solar radiation and the aerosol layer is small, to predict the visible reflectances in the blue (0.47 μm) and red (0.66 μm) bands. Therefore, accurate knowledge of the VIS/SWIR ratio is essential for achieving accurate retrieval of aerosol optical depth from MODIS. The heterogeneity of the surface cover in an urban environment increases the uncertainties in the estimation of the surface reflectance and, consequently, τa. We analyzed the surface reflectance over some distinct surface covers in and around the Mexico City metropolitan area (MCMA) using MODIS radiances at 0.66 μm and 2.1 μm. The analysis was performed at 1.5 km×1.5 km spatial resolution. Also, ground-based AERONET sun-photometer data acquired in Mexico City from 2002 to 2005 were analyzed for aerosol optical thickness and other aerosol optical properties. In addition, a network of hand-held sun-photometers deployed in Mexico City, as part of the MCMA-2006 Study during the MILAGRO Campaign, provided an unprecedented measurement of τa in 5 different sites well distributed in the city. We found that the average RED/SWIR ratio representative of the urbanized sites analyzed is 0.73±0.06. This average ratio was significantly different for non-urban sites, which was approximately 0.55. The aerosol optical thickness retrieved from MODIS radiances at a spatial resolution of 1.5 km×1.5 km and averaged within 10 x 10 km boxes were compared with collocated 1-h τa averaged from sun-photometer measurements. The use of the new RED/SWIR ratio of 0.73 in the MODIS retrieval led to a significant improvement in the agreement between the MODIS and sun-photometer results; with the slope, offset, and the correlation coefficient of the linear regression changing from (τaMODIS = 0.91 τa sun-photometer + 0.33 ,R2=0.66) to (τaMODIS = 0.96 τa sun-photometer −0.006, R2=0.87).

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Analysis of Visible/SWIR surface reflectance ratios for aerosol retrievals from satellite in Mexico City urban area

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-7-5467-2007 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 7 (20) ◽

pp. 5467-5477 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

A. D. de Almeida Castanho ◽

R. Prinn ◽

V. Martins ◽

M. Herold ◽

C. Ichoku ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mexico City ◽

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Spatial Resolution ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Aerosol Layer ◽

Surface Reflectance ◽

Swir Band ◽

Sun Photometer

Abstract. The surface reflectance ratio between the visible (VIS) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) radiation is an important quantity for the retrieval of the aerosol optical depth (τa) from the MODIS sensor data. Based on empirically determined VIS/SWIR ratios, MODIS τa retrieval uses the surface reflectance in the SWIR band (2.1 µm), where the interaction between solar radiation and the aerosol layer is small, to predict the visible reflectances in the blue (0.47 µm) and red (0.66 µm) bands. Therefore, accurate knowledge of the VIS/SWIR ratio is essential for achieving accurate retrieval of aerosol optical depth from MODIS. We analyzed the surface reflectance over some distinct surface covers in and around the Mexico City metropolitan area (MCMA) using MODIS radiances at 0.66 µm and 2.1 µm. The analysis was performed at 1.5 km×1.5 km spatial resolution. Also, ground-based AERONET sun-photometer data acquired in Mexico City from 2002 to 2005 were analyzed for aerosol depth and other aerosol optical properties. In addition, a network of hand-held sun-photometers deployed in Mexico City, as part of the MCMA-2006 Study during the MILAGRO Campaign, provided an unprecedented measurement of τa in 5 different sites well distributed in the city. We found that the average RED/SWIR ratio representative of the urbanized sites analyzed is 0.73±0.06 for scattering angles <140° and goes up to 0.77±0.06 for higher ones. The average ratio for non-urban sites was significantly lower (approximately 0.55). In fact, this ratio strongly depends on differences in urbanization levels (i.e. relative urban to vegetation proportions and types of surface materials). The aerosol optical depth retrieved from MODIS radiances at a spatial resolution of 1.5 km×1.5 km and averaged within 10×10 km boxes were compared with collocated 1-h τa averaged from sun-photometer measurements. The use of the new RED/SWIR ratio of 0.73 in the MODIS retrieval over Mexico City led to a significant improvement in the agreement between the MODIS and sun-photometer AOD results; with the slope, offset, and the correlation coefficient of the linear regression changing from (τaMODIS=0.91τa sun-photometer+0.33, R2=0.66) to (τaMODIS=0.96 τa sun-photometer−0.006, R2=0.87). Indeed, an underestimation of this ratio in urban areas lead to a significant overestimation of the AOD retrieved from satellite. Therefore, we strongly encourage similar analyses in other urban areas to enhance the development of a parameterization of the surface ratios accounting for urban heterogeneities.

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A Multi Linear Regression Model to Derive Dust PM10 in the Sahel Using AERONET Aerosol Optical Depth and CALIOP Aerosol Layer Products

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12183099 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (18) ◽

pp. 3099

Author(s):

Jean-François Léon ◽

Nadège Martiny ◽

Sébastien Merlet

Keyword(s):

Linear Regression ◽

Regression Model ◽

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Linear Regression Model ◽

Population Exposure ◽

Aerosol Layer ◽

Multi Linear Regression ◽

Sun Photometer ◽

The Impact

Due to a limited number of monitoring stations in Western Africa, the impact of mineral dust on PM10 surface concentrations is still poorly known. We propose a new method to retrieve PM10 dust surface concentrations from sun photometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) and CALIPSO/CALIOP Level 2 aerosol layer products. The method is based on a multi linear regression model that is trained using co-located PM10, AERONET and CALIOP observations at 3 different locations in the Sahel. In addition to the sun photometer AOD, the regression model uses the CALIOP-derived base and top altitude of the lowermost dust layer, its AOD, the columnar total and columnar dust AOD. Due to the low revisit period of the CALIPSO satellite, the monthly mean annual cycles of the parameters are used as predictor variables rather than instantaneous observations. The regression model improves the correlation coefficient between monthly mean PM10 and AOD from 0.15 (AERONET AOD only) to 0.75 (AERONET AOD and CALIOP parameters). The respective high and low PM10 concentration during the winter dry season and summer season are well produced. Days with surface PM10 above 100 μg/m3 are better identified when using the CALIOP parameters in the multi linear regression model. The number of true positives (actual and predicted concentrations above the threshold) is increased and leads to an improvement in the classification sensitivity (recall) by a factor 1.8. Our methodology can be extrapolated to the whole Sahel area provided that satellite derived AOD maps are used in order to create a new dataset on population exposure to dust events in this area.

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Retrieval of High Spatial Resolution Aerosol Optical Depth from Chinese gAofen Data for Australian bushfire

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3986 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yong Xue

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Spatial Resolution ◽

Satellite Data ◽

High Spatial Resolution ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Observation System ◽

Observation Data ◽

Surface Reflectance

Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is an important factor to estimate the effect of aerosol on light, and an accurate retrieval of it can make great contribution to monitor atmosphere. Therefore, retrieval of AOD has been a frontier topic and attracted much attention from researchers at home and abroad. However, the spatial resolution of AOD, based on Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), is low, and hard to meet the needs of regional air quality fine monitoring. In 2018, China launched Gaofen-6 satellite, which set up a network with Gaofen-1 enabling two-day revisited observations in China's land area, improving the scale and timeliness of remote sensing data acquisition and making up for the shortcomings of lacking multi-spectral satellite with medium and high spatial resolution. Along with advancement of the Earth Observation System and the launch of high-resolution satellites, it is of profound significance to give full play to the active role of high-scoring satellites, in monitoring atmospheric environmental elements such as atmospheric aerosols and particulate matter concentrations, and achieve high-resolution retrieval of AOD through Gaofen satellites.In this paper the data of Gaofen-6 and Gaofen-1 was used to retrieve the AOD. based on the Synergetic Retrieval of Aerosol Properties (SRAP) algorithm. This algorithm can retrieve the surface reflectance and AOD synchronously through constructing a closed equation based on double star observations. It can be applied to various types of surface reflectance which extends the coverage of the retrieval of AOD inversion effectively. Experimental data includes the satellite data of New South Wales and eastern Queensland on November 21, 2019, which have been suffered from unprecedented large-scale forest fires for over 2 months. The retrieval of AOD during the time with the satellite data is benefit for the prevention and monitoring of forest fire. The experimental results are compared with the AERONET ground observation data for preliminary validation. The correlation coefficient is about 0.7. The experimental results show that the method have higher accuracy, and further validation work is continuing.

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Data rescue of stratospheric aerosol observations from lidar at Lexington, MA, and Fairbanks, AK, January 1964 to July 1965.

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14351 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Juan Carlos Antuña-Marrero ◽

Graham W. Mann ◽

John Barnes ◽

Albeth Rodríguez-Vega ◽

Sarah Shallcross ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Optical Thickness ◽

Large Degree ◽

Stratospheric Aerosol ◽

Aerosol Layer ◽

Aerosol Extinction ◽

Aerosol Model ◽

Scattering Ratio ◽

Relative Errors

We report the recovery and processing methodology of the first ever multi-year lidar dataset of the stratospheric aerosol layer. A Q-switched Ruby lidar measured 66 vertical profiles of 694nm attenuated backscatter at Lexington, Massachusetts between January 1964 and August 1965, with an additional 9 profile measurements conducted from College, Alaska during July and August 1964.We describe the processing of the recovered lidar backscattering ratio profiles to produce mid-visible (532nm) stratospheric aerosol extinction profiles (sAEP532) and stratospheric aerosol optical depth (sAOD532) measurements.Stratospheric soundings of temperature, and pressure generate an accurate local molecular backscattering profile, with nearby ozone soundings determining the ozone absorption, those profiles then used to correct for two-way ozone transmittance. Two-way aerosol transmittance corrections were also applied based on nearby observations of total aerosol optical depth (across the troposphere and stratosphere) from sun photometer measurements.We show the two-way transmittance correction has substantial effects on the retrieved sAEP532 and sAOD532, calculated without the corrections resulting in substantially lower values of both variables, as it was not applied in the original processing producing the lidar scattering ratio profiles we rescued. The combined transmittance corrections causes the aerosol extinction to increase by 67 % for Lexington and 27 % for Fairbanks, for sAOD532 the increases 66 % and 26 % respectively. Comparing the magnitudes of the aerosol extinction and sAOD with the few contemporary available measurements reported show a better agreement in the case of the two way transmittance corrected values.The sAEP and sAOD timeseries at Lexington show a surprisingly large degree of variability, three periods where the stratospheric aerosol layer had suddenly elevated optical thickness, the highest sAOD532 of 0.07 measured at the end of March 1965. The two other periods of enhanced sAOD532 are both two-month periods where the lidars show more than 1 night where retrieved sAOD532 exceeded 0.05: in January and February 1964 and November and December 1964.Interactive stratospheric aerosol model simulations of the 1963 Agung cloud illustrate that although substantial variation&#160; in mid-latitude sAOD532 is expected from the seasonal cycle in the Brewer-Dobson circulation, the Agung cloud dispersion will have caused much slower increase than the more episodic variations observed, with also different timing, elevated optical thickness from Agung occurring in winter and spring.The abruptness and timing of the steadily increasing sAOD from January to July 1965 suggests this variation was from a different source than Agung, possibly from one or both of the two VEI3 eruptions that occurred in 1964/65: Trident, Alaska and Vestmannaeyjar, Heimey, south of Iceland.A detailed error analysis of the uncertainties in each of the variables involved in the processing chain was conducted, relative errors of 54 % for Fairbanks and 44 % Lexington for the uncorrected sAEP532, corrected sAEP532 of 61 % and 64 % respectively.The analysis of the uncertainties identified variables that, with additional data recovery and reprocessing could reduce these relative error levels. Data described in this work are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.922105 (Dataset in Review) (Antu&#241;a-Marrero et al., 2020).

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Recovery of the first ever multi-year lidar dataset of the stratospheric aerosol layer, from Lexington, MA, and Fairbanks, AK, January 1964 to July 1965

10.5194/essd-2020-246 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Juan-Carlos Antuña-Marrero ◽

Graham W. Mann ◽

John Barnes ◽

Albeth Rodríguez-Vega ◽

Sarah Shallcross ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Optical Thickness ◽

Large Degree ◽

Stratospheric Aerosol ◽

Aerosol Layer ◽

Aerosol Extinction ◽

Aerosol Model ◽

Scattering Ratio ◽

Relative Errors

Abstract. We report the recovery and processing methodology of the first ever multi-year lidar dataset of the stratospheric aerosol layer. A Q-switched Ruby lidar measured 66 vertical profiles of 694 nm attenuated backscatter at Lexington, Massachusetts between January 1964 and August 1965, with an additional 9 profile measurements conducted from College, Alaska during July and August 1964. We describe the processing of the recovered lidar backscattering ratio profiles to produce mid-visible (532 nm) stratospheric aerosol extinction profiles (sAEP532) and stratospheric aerosol optical depth (sAOD532) measurements, utilizing a number of contemporary measurements of several different atmospheric variables. Stratospheric soundings of temperature, and pressure generate an accurate local molecular backscattering profile, with nearby ozone soundings determining the ozone absorption, those profiles then used to correct for two-way ozone transmittance. Two-way aerosol transmittance corrections were also applied based on nearby observations of total aerosol optical depth (across the troposphere and stratosphere) from sun photometer measurements. We show the two-way transmittance correction has substantial effects on the retrieved sAEP532 and sAOD532, calculated without the corrections resulting in substantially lower values of both variables, as it was not applied in the original processing producing the lidar scattering ratio profiles we rescued. The combined transmittance corrections causes the aerosol extinction to increase by 67 % for Lexington and 27 % for Fairbanks, for sAOD532 the increases 66 % and 26 % respectively. Comparing the magnitudes of the aerosol extinction and sAOD with the few contemporary available measurements reported show a better agreement in the case of the two way transmittance corrected values. The sAEP and sAOD timeseries at Lexington show a surprisingly large degree of variability, three periods where the stratospheric aerosol layer had suddenly elevated optical thickness, the highest sAOD532 of 0.07 measured at the end of March 1965. The two other periods of enhanced sAOD532 are both two-month periods where the lidars show more than 1 night where retrieved sAOD532 exceeded 0.05: in January and February 1964 and November and December 1964. Interactive stratospheric aerosol model simulations of the 1963 Agung cloud illustrate that although substantial variation in mid-latitude sAOD532 is expected from the seasonal cycle in the Brewer-Dobson circulation, the Agung cloud dispersion will have caused much slower increase than the more episodic variations observed, with also different timing, elevated optical thickness from Agung occurring in winter and spring. The abruptness and timing of the steadily increasing sAOD from January to July 1965 suggests this variation was from a different source than Agung, possibly from one or both of the two VEI3 eruptions that occurred in 1964/65: Trident, Alaska and Vestmannaeyjar, Heimey, south of Iceland. A detailed error analysis of the uncertainties in each of the variables involved in the processing chain was conducted, relative errors of 54 % for Fairbanks and 44 % Lexington for the uncorrected sAEP532, corrected sAEP532 of 61 % and 64 % respectively. The analysis of the uncertainties identified variables that, with additional data recovery and reprocessing could reduce these relative error levels. Data described in this work are available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.922105 (Dataset in Review) (Antuña-Marrero et al., 2020a).

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Integration of Surface Reflectance and Aerosol Retrieval Algorithms for Multi-Resolution Aerosol Optical Depth Retrievals over Urban Areas

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs14020373 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 373

Author(s):

Muhammad Bilal ◽

Alaa Mhawish ◽

Md. Arfan Ali ◽

Janet E. Nichol ◽

Gerrit de Leeuw ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Spatial Resolution ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Retrieval Algorithm ◽

Landsat 8 ◽

Surface Reflectance ◽

Aerosol Retrieval ◽

Haze Pollution

The SEMARA approach, an integration of the Simplified and Robust Surface Reflectance Estimation (SREM) and Simplified Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (SARA) methods, was used to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm from a Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) at 30 m spatial resolution, a Terra-Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 500 m resolution, and a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) at 750 m resolution over bright urban surfaces in Beijing. The SEMARA approach coupled (1) the SREM method that is used to estimate the surface reflectance, which does not require information about water vapor, ozone, and aerosol, and (2) the SARA algorithm, which uses the surface reflectance estimated by SREM and AOD measurements obtained from the Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) site (or other high-quality AOD) as the input to estimate AOD without prior information on the aerosol optical and microphysical properties usually obtained from a look-up table constructed from long-term AERONET data. In the present study, AOD measurements were obtained from the Beijing AERONET site. The SEMARA AOD retrievals were validated against AOD measurements obtained from two other AERONET sites located at urban locations in Beijing, i.e., Beijing_RADI and Beijing_CAMS, over bright surfaces. The accuracy and uncertainties/errors in the AOD retrievals were assessed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), root mean squared error (RMSE), relative mean bias (RMB), and expected error (EE = ± 0.05 ± 20%). EE is the envelope encompassing both absolute and relative errors and contains 68% (±1σ) of the good quality retrievals based on global validation. Here, the EE of the MODIS Dark Target algorithm at 3 km resolution is used to report the good quality SEMARA AOD retrievals. The validation results show that AOD from SEMARA correlates well with AERONET AOD measurements with high correlation coefficients (r) of 0.988, 0.980, and 0.981; small RMSE of 0.08, 0.09, and 0.08; and small RMB of 4.33%, 1.28%, and -0.54%. High percentages of retrievals, i.e., 85.71%, 91.53%, and 90.16%, were within the EE for Landsat 8 OLI, MODIS, and VIIRS, respectively. The results suggest that the SEMARA approach is capable of retrieving AOD over urban areas with high accuracy and small errors using high to medium spatial resolution satellite remote sensing data. This approach can be used for aerosol monitoring over bright urban surfaces such as in Beijing, which is frequently affected by severe dust storms and haze pollution, to evaluate their effects on public health.

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Retrieval of aerosol single-scattering albedo and polarized phase function from polarized sun-photometer measurements for Zanjan's atmosphere

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ◽

10.5194/amt-6-2659-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (10) ◽

pp. 2659-2669 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

A. Bayat ◽

H. R. Khalesifard ◽

A. Masoumi

Keyword(s):

Aerosol Optical Depth ◽

Optical Depth ◽

Atmospheric Aerosols ◽

Phase Function ◽

Single Scattering ◽

Single Scattering Albedo ◽

Angstrom Exponent ◽

Ångström Exponent ◽

Sun Photometer ◽

Ångstrom Exponent

Abstract. The polarized phase function of atmospheric aerosols has been investigated for the atmosphere of Zanjan, a city in northwest Iran. To do this, aerosol optical depth, Ångström exponent, single-scattering albedo, and polarized phase function have been retrieved from the measurements of a Cimel CE 318-2 polarized sun-photometer from February 2010 to December 2012. The results show that the maximum value of aerosol polarized phase function as well as the polarized phase function retrieved for a specific scattering angle (i.e., 60°) are strongly correlated (R = 0.95 and 0.95, respectively) with the Ångström exponent. The latter has a meaningful variation with respect to the changes in the complex refractive index of the atmospheric aerosols. Furthermore the polarized phase function shows a moderate negative correlation with respect to the atmospheric aerosol optical depth and single-scattering albedo (R = −0.76 and −0.33, respectively). Therefore the polarized phase function can be regarded as a key parameter to characterize the atmospheric particles of the region – a populated city in the semi-arid area and surrounded by some dust sources of the Earth's dust belt.

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