Combined neural network/Phillips–Tikhonov approach to aerosol retrievals over land from the NASA Research Scanning Polarimeter
Antonio Di Noia1,Otto P. Hasekamp1,Lianghai Wu1,Bastiaan van Diedenhoven2,3,Brian Cairns3,and John E. Yorks4Antonio Di Noia et al. Antonio Di Noia1,Otto P. Hasekamp1,Lianghai Wu1,Bastiaan van Diedenhoven2,3,Brian Cairns3,and John E. Yorks4
1SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584CA Utrecht, the Netherlands
2Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, 2910 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
3NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
4NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
1SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584CA Utrecht, the Netherlands
2Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, 2910 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
3NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA
4NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Correspondence: Antonio Di Noia (a.di.noia@sron.nl)
Received: 08 May 2017 – Discussion started: 26 Jun 2017 – Revised: 18 Sep 2017 – Accepted: 20 Sep 2017 – Published: 08 Nov 2017
Abstract. In this paper, an algorithm for the retrieval of aerosol and land surface properties from airborne spectropolarimetric measurements – combining neural networks and an iterative scheme based on Phillips–Tikhonov regularization – is described. The algorithm – which is an extension of a scheme previously designed for ground-based retrievals – is applied to measurements from the Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) on board the NASA ER-2 aircraft. A neural network, trained on a large data set of synthetic measurements, is applied to perform aerosol retrievals from real RSP data, and the neural network retrievals are subsequently used as a first guess for the Phillips–Tikhonov retrieval. The resulting algorithm appears capable of accurately retrieving aerosol optical thickness, fine-mode effective radius and aerosol layer height from RSP data. Among the advantages of using a neural network as initial guess for an iterative algorithm are a decrease in processing time and an increase in the number of converging retrievals.
In this paper an algorithm for the retrieval of aerosol properties from NASA Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) data is presented. An artificial neural network is used to produce a first estimate of the aerosol properties, which is then improved using an iterative retrieval scheme based on Phillips–Tikhonov regularization. Using the neural network retrievals as a first guess for the Phillips–Tikhonov improved the retrieval convergence, confirming results previously found on ground-based data.
In this paper an algorithm for the retrieval of aerosol properties from NASA Research Scanning...
