Comparative Analysis of OMI and Aeronet Retrieval of Single-Scattering Albedo in Dust and Biomass Burning Environment

The OMAERUV aerosol algorithm of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA's Aura satellite takes an advantage of the sensitivity of near-UV measurements to the aerosol absorption for the derivation of the aerosol extinction optical depth and single-scattering albedo (SSA) simultaneous at 388 nm. In this work, we have compared the re-processed OMI retrieval of SSA with the equivalent inversions made by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) over many worldwide locations that are primarily influenced by the biomass burning and dust aerosols. Recently, the OMAERUV algorithm has gone through an important revision in which three major modifications are incorporated. First, based on the available ground-based measurements on the aerosol absorption, a set of new carbonaceous aerosol models are introduced which account for the presence of organics in the biomass burning aerosols. Second, the algorithm makes use of CALIOP-measured vertical profile of aerosol back-scatter to deduce the mean height of aerosol layer which in turn is used in the retrieval. Third, the identification of aerosol type has been made robust by making the combined use of aerosol index and AIRS-derived CO. The comparative analysis revealed that OMI retrievals of SSA are in reasonable to good agreement with those of AERONET. For many locations, about 70% of co-located OMI SSAs are found to be within the AERONET inversion uncertainty of ±0.03. An assessment of the OMI aerosol absorption optical depth against AERONET is under progress and possibly will be shown if completed in time.