A Study on the Optical Properties of Aerosols above the Forest by Remote Sensing

Aerosol retrieval by remote sensing technique is one of the promising method in understanding the chemical and optical properties, column load, and spatial distribution of aerosols. However, though the current technique in use is quite successful about aerosols over ocean with small water-leaving radiances, quantitative retrieval of aerosols over land mass is not yet satisfactory. We try to develop a new method to make the aerosol retrieval over land more accurate than ever before. A sensitivity analysis of reflectance shows that wrong selection of spectral reflectance model results in quite a large difference in retrieved aerosol characteristics. Therefore, a well¡Csuited surface reflectance model is needed to be created. We conducted aerosol and radiation measurements coupled with in situ forest reflectance measurements in sync with satellite radiance measurements by EOS Terra and Aqua from the top of the atmosphere. The experimental site is located in a forest with an extensive and uniform area covered with deciduous trees commonly existing in Japan. The ground-based measurements include Andersen impactor samplings, radiometric measurements with OPC, a sunphotometer and a telephotometer. Forest reflectance was measured with a spectral radiometer covering visible and near infrared above the forest canopy level from a tower standing in the forest. Reflectance was measured directionally, and was found to show no major bi-directional dependency, assuring us that Lambert reflectance model is sufficient for calculation in this particular type of forest. The sampled spectral reflectances were averaged to be 0.0414 at 0.55 μ m. For satellite aerosol retrieval, visible and near infrared bands in MODIS sensors were employed. MODTRAN code was used in radiative transfer in the aerosol-laden atmosphere. Several different types of aerosol were examined, and a rural aerosol model with similar size distribution and composition to the aerosols, which are estimated from OPC measurements and Andersen samplings, was used as an input for the radiative transfer calculation. Absorption coefficients were calculated from the data obtained from a separate carbon sampling. The column aerosol optical depth was obtained to be 0.309 at 0.50 μ m, which is similar to the value derived from sunphotometer.