Working Towards Dark Target Aerosol Product Synergy Among Geo and Leo Sensors

Abstract

Aerosols are one of the major components that affects climate and air quality. Being able to measure global aerosol comprehensively has been a major goal for the last several decades. Now with the increasing number of sensors that are capable of retrieving aerosols on both geostationary orbit (GEO) and low-Earth orbit (LEO), getting a complete picture of global aerosol distribution is more achievable than ever. However, how to use these data with various temporal and spatial resolution synergistically is one of the urgent questions that needs to be answered before combining products. Using a consistent Dark Target algorithm on three GEO sensors (two Advanced Baseline Imagers (ABI) on GOES-E and GOES-W and Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) on Himawari-8) and three LEO sensors (Moderate resolution Imaging Spectrometers (MODIS) on Terra and Aqua and the Visible Near-Infrared Imaging (VIIRS) on Suomi-NPP), we evaluate six level 2 DT aerosol optical depth (AOD) products against Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) as well as Marine Aerosol Network (MAN) and investigated the similarity and differences among the products with a special focus on the two GEO and LEO common regions, namingly North America and East Asia. The error statistics of these products are generated against observing conditions with major uncertainty sources identified. Our results provide baseline evaluation results before synergy of DT aerosol products can be pursued.