Evaluation and comparison of MODIS and VIIRS aerosol optical depth (AOD) products over regions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea

Osgouei P. E., Roberts G., Kaya S., Bilal M., Dash J., Sertel E.

ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT, cilt.268, ss.1-20, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 268
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118784
  • Dergi Adı: ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Aqualine, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Artic & Antarctic Regions, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, Chimica, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Computer & Applied Sciences, EMBASE, Environment Index, Geobase, Greenfile, INSPEC, Metadex, Pollution Abstracts, Public Affairs Index, Veterinary Science Database, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-20
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Aerosols, MODIS, VIIRS, AERONET, DB, DT, MAIAC, Validation, Inter-comparisons, S-NPP VIIRS, COLLECTION 6, DARK-TARGET, ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION, AERONET MEASUREMENTS, TROPOSPHERIC AEROSOLS, RETRIEVING AEROSOL, IMPROVED CLOUD, VALIDATION, ALGORITHM
  • İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

In addition to the direct and indirect effects of aerosol loading on radiative forcing and climate, exposure to high aerosol concentrations has adverse effects on human health. Several inversion algorithms are used to retrieve aerosol properties, primarily aerosol optical depth (AOD). Satellite aerosol products are available from several moderate spatial resolution sensors and provide information on the spatial and temporal dynamics of aerosol concentration. This study provides an evaluation and inter-comparison of multiple aerosol products from Terra and Aqua Moderate Resolution and Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) Visible-Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) between 2014 and 2018 in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. This evaluation focuses on four MODIS aerosol products, which including the 10-km and 3-km Dark Target (DT) AOD retrievals at 10-km and 3-km spatial resolutions, Deep Blue (DB) AOD retrievals at the 10-km spatial resolution, Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) AOD retrievals at the 1-km spatial resolution, and VIIRS DB AOD retrievals at 6-km spatial resolution. Satellite-based AOD retrievals are validated against in-situ AOD measurements from three AERONET ground stations located in urban/land, rural/coastal, and ocean surfaces.

The results show that Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) between the satellite AOD retrievals and AERONET AOD measurements range between 0.45 and 0.93 whilst the Root-Mean-Squared Errors (RMSE) varies from 0.047 to 0.159 which highlights the reliability of satellite AOD retrievals' in the region. The best performing products over the urban/land surface are the MODIS MAIAC and VIIRS DB aerosol products with the RMSE of 0.048–0.061 and a higher percentage (81%–89%) of retrievals falling within expected error for land. Over the ocean, the MODIS DT products have the lowest errors (RMSE 0.047–0.061) and the highest percentage (70%–80%) of retrievals falling within the expected error. The performance of all algorithms over rural/coastal regions is poorer in terms of over- and under-estimations of AOD with a small percentage of retrievals (48%–87%) within expected error. Among all satellite product retrievals and their respective AOD measurements, the VIIRS aerosol product performs better over coastal areas in terms of high correlation coefficient (r = 0.88), low error (RMSE = 0.059), and the large percentage of retrievals within expected error (88%). The poor performance found over the more complex rural/coastal regions suggests further improvements are needed in land-water-sediment masks, surface reflectance estimation, and aerosol model assumptions over mixed surface types.

The aerosol products show the highest agreement (r ∼ 0.77–0.98) over the ocean surface whilst the coastal site aerosol products verified the greatest dissimilarity in aerosol loading variations (r ∼ 0.50–0.91). Lastly, the good correlation (r > 0.73) between the VIIRS and MODIS AOD products illustrates the potential of VIIRS to provide aerosol data continuity with MODIS.