Resolution and Content Improvements to MISR Aerosol and Land Surface Products

Abstract:

Since early 2000, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite has been providing operational Level 2 (swath-based) aerosol optical depth (AOD) and particle property retrievals at 17.6 km spatial resolution and atmospherically corrected land surface products at 1.1 km resolution. The performance of the aerosol product has been validated against ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations, model comparisons, and climatological assessments. This product has played a major role in studies of the impacts of aerosols on climate and air quality. The surface product has found a variety of uses, particularly at regional scales for assessing vegetation and land surface change. A major development effort has led to the release of an update to the operational (Version 22) MISR Level 2 aerosol and land surface retrieval products, which has been in production since December 2007. The new release is designated Version 23. The resolution of the aerosol product has been increased to 4.4 km, allowing more detailed characterization of aerosol spatial variability, especially near local sources and in urban areas. The product content has been simplified and updated to include more robust measures of retrieval uncertainty and other fields to benefit users. The land surface product has also been updated to incorporate the Version 23 aerosol product as input and to improve spatial coverage, particularly over mountainous terrain and snow/ice-covered surfaces.

We will describe the major upgrades incorporated in Version 23 and present validation of the aerosol product against both the standard AERONET historical database, as well as high spatial density AERONET-DRAGON deployments. Comparisons will also be shown relative to the Version 22 aerosol and land surface products. Applications enabled by these product updates will be discussed.