Simultaneous Observations of AbsorbingAaerosols by the S-NPP's VIIRS and OMPS-Nadir Mapper Sensors

Information on aerosol absorption (AA) and its location in the atmospheric column is fundamental in the assessment of the radiative balance of the Earth's atmosphere. The lack of surveys about its global distribution, magnitude and variability (at spatial and temporal scales) adds a significant uncertainty in the assessment of aerosol radiative forcing on climate and in quantitative aerosol remote sensing. Detection of AA is best when carried out with a sensor with UV channels such as OMI and TOMS. However, for a retrieval of AA properties such as the single scattering albedo, additional information is needed about the aerosol optical depth (usually derived using a sensor such as MODIS) and layer height since all three contribute to the observed radiance. The OMI and TOMS sensors were not collocated in time and space with a visible sensor and they have large ground resolutions (>24x10km) resulting in significant cloud contamination, which is difficult to consider in the AA retrieval. With the deployment of S-NPP with VIIRS (MODIS like) and the OMPS-NM (TOMS/OMI-like) sensors, observations occur almost simultaneously and at the same viewing angles resulting a better discrimination of clouds and clear pixels. These features raise the possibility of a consistent UV to Near IR aerosol retrieval of the three optical properties (at selected wavelengths) from a combined and synergistic use of observations from both sensors without any prescribing any of them as previous approaches did. The poster will present the ongoing progress regarding this objective by showing an analysis of collocated scenes of OMPS-NM and VIIRS. Examples of clear sky, cloudy and partially cloudy scenes with different types of aerosols. Visual and contextual analysis will be shown along with aerosol information from VIIRS DT retrievals. This analysis will be carried out using images of OMPS-NM in high ( 10km x 10km) and super-high spatial resolution ( 3km x 10km) mode, a little explored product not currently used for operational retrievals.