Estimation of biomass burning aerosols derived from combination of GOSAT/CAI and PARASOL/POLDER

Greenhouse gases observing satellite (GOSAT) was launched in January 2009, which carries two sensors, Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) and Cloud and Aerosol Imager (CAI). The CAI is a complimentary sensor to observe the both cloud and aerosol particles at four wavelengths from near UV (0.38 µm) to short infrared (1.6 µm) with the 500 m pixel resolution. The measurements at 0.38 µm have advantages of detection of carbonaceous aerosols and less ground surface reflection in comparison with the visible bands. Polarization and Directionality of Earth's Reflectances (POLDER) measures the directional polarization feature with semi-Stokes vector (I, Q, and U) at 0.49, 0.67, and 0.87 µm. The polarization information by POLDER has big advantages to retrieve aerosol properties, especially for fine mode aerosols. This work intends to estimate the optical properties of carbonaceous aerosols especially produced by the Siberian forest fire events in western and eastern Russia in summer of 2010 based on combination use of GOSAT/CAI and PARASOL/POLDER. As results, aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and a single scattering albedo (SSA) at a wavelength 0.55 µm have been retrieved. It is found from these results that AOT takes the large values over the plume, and the low values of SSA in the plume. It is of interest to mention that this fact might suggest the changing of aerosol properties according with water vapor uptake during the transportation. In addition, our results are partially validated with ground sun/sky radiometer network AERONET stations in Russia.