scholarly journals PMCAMx-2015 evaluation over Europe against AERONET and MODIS aerosol optical depth measurements

Author(s):  
Antigoni Panagiotopoulou ◽  
Panagiotis Charalambidis ◽  
Christos Fountoukis ◽  
Christodoulos Pilinis ◽  
Spyros N. Pandis

Abstract. The ability of the chemical transport model (CTM) PMCAMx to reproduce aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over Europe during a photochemically active period is evaluated. Periods with high dust levels are excluded so the analysis focuses on the ability of the model to simulate the mostly secondary aerosol and its interactions with water. PMCAMx reproduces the monthly mean MODIS and AERONET AOD values over the Iberian Peninsula, the British Isles, central Europe, and Russia with fractional bias less than 15 % and fractional error less than 30 %. However, the model overestimates the AOD over northern Europe probably due to an overestimation of organic aerosol and sulfates. On the other end, PMCAMx underestimates the monthly mean MODIS AOD over the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the South Atlantic. These errors are probably due to an underestimation of sulfates. Sensitivity tests indicate that the evaluation results of the monthly mean AODs are quite sensitive to the relative humidity (RH) fields used by PMCAMx, but are not sensitive to the simulated size distribution and the black carbon mixing state.

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 4257-4272
Author(s):  
Antigoni Panagiotopoulou ◽  
Panagiotis Charalampidis ◽  
Christos Fountoukis ◽  
Christodoulos Pilinis ◽  
Spyros N. Pandis

Abstract. The ability of chemical transport model (CTM) PMCAMx to reproduce aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over Europe during the photochemically active period of May 2008 (EUCAARI campaign) is evaluated. Periods with high dust or sea-salt levels are excluded, so the analysis focuses on the ability of the model to simulate the mostly secondary aerosol and its interactions with water. PMCAMx reproduces the monthly mean MODIS and AERONET AOD values over the Iberian Peninsula, the British Isles, central Europe, and Russia with a fractional bias of less than 15 % and a fractional error of less than 30 %. However, the model overestimates the AOD over northern Europe, most probably due to an overestimation of organic aerosol and sulfates. At the other end, PMCAMx underestimates the monthly mean MODIS AOD over the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the South Atlantic. These errors appear to be related to an underestimation of sulfates. Sensitivity tests indicate that the evaluation results of the monthly mean AODs are quite sensitive to the relative humidity (RH) fields used by PMCAMx, but are not sensitive to the simulated size distribution and the black carbon mixing state. The screening of the satellite retrievals for periods with high dust (or coarse particles in general) concentrations as well as the combination of the MODIS and AERONET datasets lead to more robust conclusions about the ability of the model to simulate the secondary aerosol components that dominate the AOD during this period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (3A) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
DUC LUONG NGUYEN ◽  
Thi Hieu Bui ◽  
Hoang Hiep Nguyen ◽  
Quang Trung Bui ◽  
Hoang Duong Do

Although a number of studies have extensively inter-compared the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite-based aerosol optical depth (AOD) with the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) ground-based AOD on both global and regional scales, almost no similar studies have been conducted for Vietnam - a humid subtropical climate region. For the first time, inter-comparison between the MODIS Terra and Aqua Collection 6.1 (C6.1) Dark Target (DT) 10 km, Deep Blue (DB) 10 km, and merged DT-DB 10 km with the AERONET AODs has been performed in different areas with different surface types and different climatic characteristics in Vietnam. Three investigated AERONET stations are Nghia Do (urban), Son La (mountainous rural), and Bac Lieu (coastal urban) with the studying periods of 2010 - 2016, 2012 - 2017, and 2010 - 2017, respectively. Our findings showed the better performances of DB algorithm than those of DT and DT-DB products in the urban area. Additionally, all MODIS AOD algorithm performed worse over the coastal area compared to those in the non-coastal areas. Generally, the ability of all the MODIS AODs to catch up the monthly-mean AERONET AODs has been expressed in this study.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 557-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Shi ◽  
J. Zhang ◽  
J. S. Reid ◽  
B. Holben ◽  
E. J. Hyer ◽  
...  

Abstract. As an update to our previous use of the collection 4 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over-ocean aerosol optical depth (AOD) data, we examined ten years of Terra and eight years of Aqua collection 5 data for its potential usage in aerosol assimilation. Uncertainties in the over-ocean MODIS AOD were studied as functions of observing conditions, such as surface characteristics, aerosol optical properties, and cloud artifacts. Empirical corrections and quality assurance procedures were developed and compared to collection 4 data. After applying these procedures, the Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) in the MODIS Terra and Aqua AOD are reduced by 30% and 10–20%, respectively, with respect to AERONET data. Ten years of Terra and eight years of Aqua quality-assured level 3 MODIS over-ocean aerosol products were produced. The newly developed MODIS over-ocean aerosol products will be used in operational aerosol assimilation and aerosol climatology studies, as well as other research based on MODIS products.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1102
Author(s):  
Bin Zou ◽  
Ning Liu ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Huihui Feng ◽  
Xiangping Liu ◽  
...  

Current reported spatiotemporal solutions for fusing multisensor aerosol optical depth (AOD) products used to recover gaps either suffer from unacceptable accuracy levels, i.e., fixed rank smooth (FRS), or high time costs, i.e., Bayesian maximum entropy (BME). This problem is generally more serious when dealing with multiple AOD products in a long time series or over large geographic areas. This study proposes a new, effective, and efficient enhanced FRS method (FRS-EE) to fuse satellite AOD products with uncertainty constraints. AOD products used in the fusion experiment include Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) DB/DT_DB_Combined AOD and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) AOD across mainland China from 2016 to 2017. Results show that the average completeness of original, initial FRS fused, and FRS-EE fused AODs with uncertainty constraints are 22.80%, 95.18%, and 65.84%, respectively. Although the correlation coefficient (R = 0.77), root mean square error (RMSE = 0.30), and mean bias (Bias = 0.023) of the initial FRS fused AODs are relatively lower than those of original AODs compared to Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) AOD records, the accuracy of FRS-EE fused AODs, which are R = 0.88, RMSE = 0.20, and Bias = 0.022, is obviously improved. More importantly, in regions with fully missing original AODs, the accuracy of FRS-EE fused AODs is close to that of original AODs in regions with valid retrievals. Meanwhile, the time cost of FRS-EE for AOD fusion was only 2.91 h; obviously lower than the 30.46 months taken for BME.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sundar Christopher ◽  
Pawan Gupta

Using a combined Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mid-visible aerosol optical depth (AOD) product at 0.1 × 0.1-degree spatial resolution and collocated surface PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm) monitors, we provide a global five-year (2015–2019) assessment of the spatial and seasonal AOD–PM2.5 relationships of slope, intercepts, and correlation coefficients. Only data from ground monitors accessible through an open air-quality portal that are available to the worldwide community for air quality research and decision making are used in this study. These statistics that are reported 1 × 1-degree resolution are important since satellite AOD is often used in conjunction with spatially limited surface PM2.5 monitors to estimate global distributions of surface particulate matter concentrations. Results indicate that more than 3000 ground monitors are now available for PM2.5 studies. While there is a large spread in correlation coefficients between AOD and PM2.5, globally, averaged over all seasons, the correlation coefficient is 0.55 with a unit AOD producing 54 μgm−3 of PM2.5 (Slope) with an intercept of 8 μgm−3. While the number of surface PM2.5 measurements has increased by a factor of 10 over the last decade, a concerted effort is still needed to continue to increase these monitors in areas that have no surface monitors, especially in large population centers that will further leverage the strengths of satellite data.


Atmosphere ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamás Várnai ◽  
Alexander Marshak

This paper presents an overview of our efforts to characterize and better understand cloud-related changes in aerosol properties. These efforts primarily involved the statistical analysis of global or regional datasets of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aerosol and cloud observations. The results show that in oceanic regions, more than half of all aerosol measurements by passive satellite instruments come from near-cloud areas, where clouds and cloud-related processes may significantly modify aerosol optical depth and particle size. Aerosol optical depth is also shown to increase systematically with regional cloud amount throughout the Earth. In contrast, it is shown that effective particle size can either increase or decrease with increasing cloud cover. In bimodal aerosol populations, the sign of changes depends on whether coarse mode or small mode aerosols are most affected by clouds. The results also indicate that over large parts of Earth, undetected cloud particles are not the dominant reason for the satellite-observed changes with cloud amount, and that 3D radiative processes contribute about 30% of the observed near-cloud changes. The findings underline the need for improving our ability to accurately measure aerosols near clouds.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 7895-7901 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Arola ◽  
T. F. Eck ◽  
J. Huttunen ◽  
K. E. J. Lehtinen ◽  
A. V. Lindfors ◽  
...  

Abstract. The diurnal variability of aerosol optical depth (AOD) can be significant, depending on location and dominant aerosol type. However, these diurnal cycles have rarely been taken into account in measurement-based estimates of aerosol direct radiative forcing (ADRF) or aerosol direct radiative effect (ADRE). The objective of our study was to estimate the influence of diurnal aerosol variability at the top of the atmosphere ADRE estimates. By including all the possible AERONET sites, we wanted to assess the influence on global ADRE estimates. While focusing also in more detail on some selected sites of strongest impact, our goal was to also see the possible impact regionally. We calculated ADRE with different assumptions about the daily AOD variability: taking the observed daily AOD cycle into account and assuming diurnally constant AOD. Moreover, we estimated the corresponding differences in ADREs, if the single AOD value for the daily mean was taken from the the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra or Aqua overpass times, instead of accounting for the true observed daily variability. The mean impact of diurnal AOD variability on 24 h ADRE estimates, averaged over all AERONET sites, was rather small and it was relatively small even for the cases when AOD was chosen to correspond to the Terra or Aqua overpass time. This was true on average over all AERONET sites, while clearly there can be much stronger impact in individual sites. Examples of some selected sites demonstrated that the strongest observed AOD variability (the strongest morning afternoon contrast) does not typically result in a significant impact on 24 h ADRE. In those cases, the morning and afternoon AOD patterns are opposite and thus the impact on 24 h ADRE, when integrated over all solar zenith angles, is reduced. The most significant effect on daily ADRE was induced by AOD cycles with either maximum or minimum AOD close to local noon. In these cases, the impact on 24 h ADRE was typically around 0.1–0.2 W m−2 (both positive and negative) in absolute values, 5–10% in relative ones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 2330
Author(s):  
Yan Tong ◽  
Lian Feng ◽  
Kun Sun ◽  
Jing Tang

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.


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