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| Titel |
An improved method for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical thickness from the VIIRS Day/Night Band |
| VerfasserIn |
T. M. McHardy, J. Zhang, J. S. Reid, S. D. Miller, E. J. Hyer, R. E. Kuehn |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1867-1381
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques ; 8, no. 11 ; Nr. 8, no. 11 (2015-11-16), S.4773-4783 |
| Datensatznummer |
250116683
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/amt-8-4773-2015.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| 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
(SEAC4RS) 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 (r2) 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. |
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