An improved method for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical thickness from the VIIRS Day/Night Band

Using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) data, a method, dubbed the "variance method", is developed for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical thickness (τ) values through the examination of the dispersion of radiance values above an artificial light sourc...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
Main Authors: T. M. McHardy, J. Zhang, J. S. Reid, S. D. Miller, E. J. Hyer, R. E. Kuehn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2015
Subjects:
Environmental engineering
TA170-171
Earthwork. Foundations
TA715-787
Aerosol Robotic Network
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4773-2015
https://doaj.org/article/315876fe851e4e9dbe5c5dba2f8d6ad8
Description
Summary:Using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) data, a method, dubbed the "variance method", is developed for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical thickness (τ) values through the examination of the dispersion of radiance values above an artificial light source. Based on the improvement of a previous algorithm, this updated method derives a semi-quantitative indicator of nighttime τ using artificial light sources. Nighttime τ retrievals from the newly developed method are inter-compared with an interpolated value from late afternoon and early morning ground observations from four AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sites as well as column-integrated τ from one High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) site at Huntsville, AL, during the NASA Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC 4 RS) campaign, providing full diel coverage. Sensitivity studies are performed to examine the effects of lunar illumination on VIIRS τ retrievals made via the variance method, revealing that lunar contamination may have a smaller impact than previously thought; however, the small sample size of this study limits the conclusiveness thus far. VIIRS τ retrievals yield a coefficient of determination ( r 2 ) of 0.60 and a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 0.18 when compared against straddling daytime-averaged AERONET τ values. Preliminary results suggest that artificial light sources can be used for estimating regional and global nighttime aerosol distributions in the future.

Similar Items