Validation of GRASP algorithm product from POLDER/PARASOL data and assessment of multi-angular polarimetry potential for aerosol monitoring

• Published in: Earth System Science Data
• Main Authors: Chen, Cheng, Dubovik, O., Fuertes, David, Litvinov, Pavel, Lapyonok, Tatyana, Lopatin, Anton, Ducos, Fabrice, Derimian, Yevgeny, Herman, Maurice, Tanré, Didier, Remer, Lorraine, Lyapustin, Alexei, Sayer, Andrew, Levy, Robert, Hsu, N. Christina, Descloitres, Jacques, Li, Lei, Torres, Benjamin, Karol, Yana, Herrera, Milagros, Herreras, Marcos, Aspetsberger, Michael, Wanzenboeck, Moritz, Bindreiter, Lukas, Marth, Daniel, Hangler, Andreas, Federspiel, Christian
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique - UMR 8518 (LOA), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03320488; https://hal.science/hal-03320488/document; https://hal.science/hal-03320488/file/essd-12-3573-2020.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3573-2020

International audience Abstract. Proven by multiple theoretical and practical studies, multi-angular spectral polarimetry is ideal for comprehensive retrieval of properties of aerosols. Furthermore, a large number of advanced space polarimeters have been launched recently or planned to be deployed in the coming few years (Dubovik et al., 2019). Nevertheless, at present, practical utilization of aerosol products from polarimetry is rather limited, due to the relatively small number of polarimetric compared to photometric observations, as well as challenges in making full use of the extensive information content available in these complex observations. Indeed, while in recent years several new algorithms have been developed to provide enhanced aerosol retrievals from satellite polarimetry, the practical value of available aerosol products from polarimeters yet remains to be proven. In this regard, this paper presents the analysis of aerosol products obtained by the Generalized Retrieval of Atmosphere and Surface Properties (GRASP) algorithm from POLDER/PARASOL observations. After about a decade of development, GRASP has been adapted for operational processing of polarimetric satellite observations and several aerosol products from POLDER/PARASOL observations have been released. These updated PARASOL/GRASP products are publicly available (e.g., http://www.icare.univ-lille.fr, last access: 16 October 2018, http://www.grasp-open.com/products/, last access: 28 March 2020); the dataset used in the current study is registered under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3887265 (Chen et al., 2020). The objective of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the GRASP aerosol products obtained from POLDER/PARASOL observations. First, the validation of the entire 2005–2013 archive was conducted by comparing to ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) data. The subjects of the validation are spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) and single-scattering albedo (SSA) at six wavelengths, ...