Evolving Synergy between UV and VIS instruments for Aerosol Remote Sensing- Implications for Suomi NPP and Future Instruments

Abstract:

Satellite remote sensing of aerosols started in 1979 using data from the AVHRR series of instruments on NOAA polar orbiters. Though limited to the oceans only, AVHRR clearly showed the basic latitudinal, longitudinal, and seasonal patterns in global aerosol fields that have been confirmed by more advanced instruments. In the early 90s a surprising discovery was made that UV instruments, such as TOMS, designed primarily to measure atmospheric ozone, can enhance this information by tracking the aerosol absorption signal of smoke and dust plumes over both land and water, as well as over bright surfaces covered by low level clouds, snow and ice. While more recent VIS/IR mapping instruments, such as SeaWIFS, MISR, MODIS, and VIIRS have greatly enhanced aerosol remote sensing capability compared to AVHRR, similar improvements have been made in UV remote sensing of aerosols, particularly with the launch of OMI on Aura in 2004. More recently, several successful approaches have been developed to combine MODIS and OMI data to estimate aerosol single scattering albedo over cloud-free areas and aerosol optical thickness over cloudy areas. I will discuss how these advanced techniques could be applied to combine VIIRS and OMPS data from Suomi NPP and what improvements are planned for JPSS-1. These techniques could also be applied to process data from the EPIC instrument, scheduled to be launched on the DSCOVR satellite next year. It will be located 1.5 million km from the Earth along the Sun-Earth axis at the first Lagrange point. Several other UV/VIS instruments are planned to be launched in LEO and GEO orbits in this decade that can take advantage of this synergy.