Evaluation of Terra-MODIS C6 and C6.1 Aerosol Products against Beijing, XiangHe, and Xinglong AERONET Sites in China during 2004-2014 ...

• Main Authors: Bilal, Muhammad, Nazeer, Majid, Nichol, Janet, Qiu, Zhongfeng, Wang, Lunche, Bleiweiss, Max P., Shen, Xiaojing, Campbell, James R., Lolli, Simone
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: MDPI 2019
• Subjects: MOD04; dark-target; deep-blue; AERONET; LiDAR; Aerosol optical depth AOD; Beijing; China; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.13016/m2hoer-l43a; http://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/13117

In this study, Terra-MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Collections 6 and 6.1 (C6 & C6.1) aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals with the recommended high-quality flag (QF = 3) were retrieved from Dark-Target (DT), Deep-Blue (DB) and merged DT and DB (DTB) level–2 AOD products for verification against Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Version 3 Level 2.0 AOD data obtained from 2004–2014 for three sites located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. These are: Beijing, located over mixed bright urban surfaces, XiangHe located over suburban surfaces, and Xinglong located over hilly and vegetated surfaces. The AOD retrievals were also validated over different land-cover types defined by static monthly NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) values obtained from the Terra-MODIS level-3 product (MOD13A3). These include non-vegetated surfaces (NVS, NDVI < 0.2), partially vegetated surfaces (PVS, 0.2 ≤ NDVI ≤ 0.3), moderately vegetated surfaces (MVS, 0.3 < NDVI < 0.5) and ...