HR: 0830h
AN: A41E-0734    [PDF]
TI: Comparison of MISR and AERONET Aerosol Optical Depths Over Desert Sites
AU: * Martonchik, J
EM: john.v.martonchik@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Diner, D
EM: david.j.diner@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Kahn, R
EM: ralph.kahn@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Gaitley, B
EM: barbara.gaitley@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AB: Aerosol optical depth is now routinely retrieved over vast areas of the Earth's surface by many different satellite instruments. The ocean provides the easiest surface type over which to perform these retrievals because it is sufficiently black at near-IR wavelengths to allow its reflectance to be conveniently ignored. Thus, the detection and measurement of large dust plumes can be made over the ocean, showing that some of these plumes can extend over trans-oceanic distances. The sources of this dust are mainly the deserts of Africa and Asia and it is in these areas that aerosol retrievals are conventionally not attempted, due to the uncertain but high reflectivity of the surface. The MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer) instrument on the Terra space platform uses both the angular variation of scene spatial contrast and near invariance of the angular signature of surface spectral reflectance to retrieve aerosol properties over land. As such, retrievals over a wide variety of land surface types can be realistically attempted, including highly reflecting deserts. Here, we compare MISR and AERONET optical depth retrieval results for five desert sites, spanning Saharan Africa and Saudi Arabia and covering the year 2002. We show that MISR can successfully retrieve dust amounts over desert areas and, thus, can provide needed information on dust activity close to the source regions.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting