Aerosol retrieval over land by exploiting the synergy of TERRA and AQUA MODIS DATA

Aerosol particles over land mainly come from man- made source such as biomass burning, industrial de-bris and natural source such as soil dust, sea salt parti-cles, etc. More and more research results show that, aerosols impact global and regional energy radiative budget; aerosol particles also modify the cloud mi-crophysics, as a result, aerosol particles may change the cloud radiative properties. Aerosol particles also play an important role in many biogeochemical cycles. All the above-menti…

Aerosol retrieval over land by exploiting the synergy of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data

Aerosol retrieval over land from satellite remotely sensed data remains internationally a difficult task. By using MODIS data, the Dark Dense Vegetation (DDV) algorithm aerosol distribution and properties retrieval over land has shown excellent competence. However, this algorithm is re-stricted to lower surface reflectance such as water bodies and dense vegetation, which limits its actual application, and is unable to be used for high reflective surface such as over urban areas. In this paper, we introduce a new aerosol retrieval model by exploiting the Synergy of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data (SYNTAM), which can be used for various ground surfaces, including for high reflective surface. Preliminary validations have been carried out by comparing with AERONET measured data, which shows good accuracy and promising potential. Further research work is undergoing.