Evaluating Aerosol Optical Depth Retrievals from Space-Born Imagers at a Dusty AERONET site in Southeastern California
Abstract
The Salton Sea is a shallow inland lake located in a terminal basin in extreme southeastern California, which is rapidly contracting in spatial extent due to the diversion of water from the Colorado rover to urban communities in the area. It is widely assumed that as the Salton contracts there will be a significant increase in aeolian dust within the region due to emission from the exposed dry playa. However, to-date, this assumption has not been validated observationally. Historical measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from space-born imagers represent an opportunity to determine if contraction of the Salton has resulted in an increase in dust. However, previous work from a dust source in the Mojave desert suggested that AOD retrievals from such platforms regularly missed dust emission there. Thus, before such data can be reliably used in any trend analysis, validation efforts must be undertaken. Here we utilize AOD retrievals from a new AERONET site near the Salton Sea to validate AOD from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (LASI) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO). Initial results suggest that MODIS is approximately in agreement with AERONET in early February 2020 with AOD measurements being 0.052 for MODIS and ranged from 0.055 to 0.065 according to AERONET. CALIPSO level 2 AOD data was found to range from 0.055 to 0.062 which suggests that if CALIPSO accurately identifies dust in the basin then we could use comparisons between CALIPSO and MODIS Aqua as another method to validate MODIS. More days and times will be observed and compared to potentially determine how accurate satellite AOD retrievals are with ground-based station data.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMA007.0006G
- Keywords:
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- 0305 Aerosols and particles;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 1622 Earth system modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGE