First Mapping of Monthly and Diurnal Climatology of Saharan Dust Layer Height Over the Atlantic Ocean From EPIC/DSCOVR in Deep Space
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2023-03-02
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Citation of Original Publication
"Lu, Z., Wang, J., Chen, X., Zeng, J., Wang, Y., Xu, X., et al. (2023). First mapping of monthly and diurnal climatology of Saharan dust layer height over the Atlantic Ocean from EPIC/ DSCOVR in deep space. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2022GL102552. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102552"
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Public Domain Mark 1.0
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Abstract
The monthly and hourly climatology of Saharan dust layer height over the Atlantic, at a spatial resolution of ∼10 km, is obtained for the first time, via a passive remote sensing technique. The technique is applied to multiple years of Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) data collected at the Lagrange-1 point, generating a climate data record (CDR) of aerosol optical centroid height (AOCH). This CDR offers unprecedented spatial coverage and diurnal sampling compared to spaceborne lidars (CALIOP and CATS). Our results show high correspondence with CALIOP data in domain-averaged monthly variations and with CATS data in diurnal variations, respectively. A principal component analysis (PCA) reveals the dominant role of dust transport in regulating AOCH variation, whereas the impact of the boundary layer is less significant. MERRA-2 and satellite retrievals respectively display zero and 200–1,000 m of diurnal variation of AOCH, highlighting the uniqueness of EPIC AOCH CDR in constraining climate models