Articles | Volume 17, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
16 Sep 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 16 Sep 2024
| 16 Sep 2024
Increasing aerosol optical depth spatial and temporal availability by merging datasets from geostationary and sun-synchronous satellites
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Robert C. Levy
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Shana Mattoo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, USA
Lorraine A. Remer
University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
Zhaohui Zhang
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
ADNET Systems, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, USA
Virginia Sawyer
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, USA
Jennifer Wei
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Sally Zhao
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Min Oo
Space Sciences and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
V. Praju Kiliyanpilakkil
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, USA
Xiaohua Pan
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
ADNET Systems, Inc., Greenbelt, MD, USA
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A global network of ground-based instruments has been using moonlight to measure atmospheric aerosols at night, producing the world's largest such dataset. By developing a correction method that accounts for the Moon's complex and variable brightness, nighttime measurements now agree with daytime measurements to a high accuracy. This capability is critical because nighttime pollution can differ meaningfully from daytime levels.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1809–1846, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1809-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1809-2026, 2026
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This study analyzed aerosols optical properties over the Arctic and Antarctic to measure them even during long periods of darkness. It found that pollution in the Arctic is decreasing, likely due to European emission regulations, while wildfires are becoming a more important source of particles. In Antarctica, particle levels are higher near the coast than inland, and vary by season. These results help us better understand how air pollution and climate are changing at the Earth’s poles.
Alexander Sinyuk, Thomas F. Eck, Ilya Slutsker, Jasper Lewis, Petar Grigorov, Alexander Smirnov, Joel S. Schafer, Mikhail Sorokin, Elena Lind, and Pawan Gupta
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6454, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6454, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
The new technique for the clouds screening of aerosol optical depth is presented. It employs measurements of the sky radiances at smallest scattering angle to detect cirrus clouds which otherwise are difficult to detect by other methods. The method employs the smoothness of the time series of measurements throughout a day as a criterion for cloud-free conditions. Sharp spikes in the time series are detected and associated with clouds.
Xiaohua Pan, Mian Chin, Ralph A. Kahn, Hitoshi Matsui, Toshihiko Takemura, Meiyun Lin, Yuanyu Xie, Dongchul Kim, and Maria Val Martin
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Sarah Smith, Yutian Wu, Rob Levy, and Mingfang Ting
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14333–14351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025, 2025
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Abdulamid A. Fakoya, Jens Redemann, Pablo E. Saide, Lan Gao, Logan T. Mitchell, Calvin Howes, Amie Dobracki, Ian Chang, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Kristina Pistone, Samuel E. Leblanc, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Thomas Eck, Brent Holben, Pawan Gupta, Elena Lind, Paquita Zuidema, Gregory Carmichael, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7879–7902, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7879-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7879-2025, 2025
Short summary
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Xin Xi, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Andrew M. Sayer, Jaehwa Lee, Robert C. Levy, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Hongqing Liu, Istvan Laszlo, Changwoo Ahn, Omar Torres, Sabur Abdullaev, James Limbacher, and Ralph A. Kahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7403–7429, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025, 2025
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Zhenyu Zhang, Jing Li, Huizheng Che, Yueming Dong, Oleg Dubovik, Thomas Eck, Pawan Gupta, Brent Holben, Jhoon Kim, Elena Lind, Trailokya Saud, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, and Tong Ying
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4617–4637, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4617-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4617-2025, 2025
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Mariya Petrenko, Ralph Kahn, Mian Chin, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Huisheng Bian, Gabriele Curci, Ben Johnson, Johannes W. Kaiser, Zak Kipling, Harri Kokkola, Xiaohong Liu, Keren Mezuman, Tero Mielonen, Gunnar Myhre, Xiaohua Pan, Anna Protonotariou, Samuel Remy, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Hailong Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1545–1567, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, 2025
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We compared smoke plume simulations from 11 global models to each other and to satellite smoke amount observations aimed at constraining smoke source strength. In regions where plumes are thick and background aerosol is low, models and satellites compare well. However, the input emission inventory tends to underestimate in many places, and particle property and loss rate assumptions vary enormously among models, causing uncertainties that require systematic in situ measurements to resolve.
Mijin Kim, Robert C. Levy, Lorraine A. Remer, Shana Mattoo, and Pawan Gupta
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1913–1939, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The study focused on evaluating and modifying the surface reflectance parameterization (SRP) of the Dark Target (DT) algorithm for geostationary observation. When using the DT SRP with the ABIs sensor on GOES-R, artificial diurnal signatures were present in AOD retrieval. To overcome this issue, a new SRP was developed, incorporating solar zenith angle and land cover type. The revised SRP resulted in improved AOD retrieval, demonstrating reduced bias around local noon.
Lorraine A. Remer, Robert C. Levy, and J. Vanderlei Martins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2113–2127, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2113-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2113-2024, 2024
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Aerosols are small liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere, including smoke, particulate pollution, dust, and sea salt. Today, we rely on satellites viewing Earth's atmosphere to learn about these particles. Here, we speculate on the future to imagine how satellite viewing of aerosols will change. We expect more public and private satellites with greater capabilities, better ways to infer information from satellites, and merging of data with models.
Amanda Gumber, Jeffrey S. Reid, Robert E. Holz, Thomas F. Eck, N. Christina Hsu, Robert C. Levy, Jianglong Zhang, and Paolo Veglio
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2547–2573, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2547-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2547-2023, 2023
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The purpose of this study is to create and evaluate a gridded dataset composed of multiple satellite instruments and algorithms to be used for data assimilation. An important part of aerosol data assimilation is having consistent measurements, especially for severe aerosol events. This study evaluates 4 years of data from MODIS, VIIRS, and AERONET with a focus on aerosol severe event detection from a regional and global perspective.
Jing Wei, Zhanqing Li, Jun Wang, Can Li, Pawan Gupta, and Maureen Cribb
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1511–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study estimated the daily seamless 10 km ambient gaseous pollutants (NO2, SO2, and CO) across China using machine learning with extensive input variables measured on monitors, satellites, and models. Our dataset yields a high data quality via cross-validation at varying spatiotemporal scales and outperforms most previous related studies, making it most helpful to future (especially short-term) air pollution and environmental health-related studies.
Pawan Gupta, Prakash Doraiswamy, Jashwanth Reddy, Palak Balyan, Sagnik Dey, Ryan Chartier, Adeel Khan, Karmann Riter, Brandon Feenstra, Robert C. Levy, Nhu Nguyen Minh Tran, Olga Pikelnaya, Kurinji Selvaraj, Tanushree Ganguly, and Karthik Ganesan
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2022-140, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Short summary
The use of low-cost sensors in air quality monitoring has been gaining interest across all walks of society. We present the results of evaluations of the PurpleAir against regulatory-grade PM2.5. The results indicate that with proper calibration, we can achieve bias-corrected PM2.5 data using PA sensors. Our study also suggests that pre-deployment calibrations developed at local or regional scales are required for the PA sensors to correct data from the field for scientific data analysis.
Hongbin Yu, Qian Tan, Lillian Zhou, Yaping Zhou, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Claire L. Ryder, Robert C. Levy, Yaswant Pradhan, Yingxi Shi, Qianqian Song, Zhibo Zhang, Peter R. Colarco, Dongchul Kim, Lorraine A. Remer, Tianle Yuan, Olga Mayol-Bracero, and Brent N. Holben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12359–12383, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12359-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12359-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study characterizes a historic African dust intrusion into the Caribbean Basin in June 2020 using satellites and NASA GEOS. Dust emissions in West Africa were large albeit not extreme. However, a unique synoptic system accumulated the dust near the coast for about 4 d before it was ventilated. Although GEOS reproduced satellite-observed plume tracks well, it substantially underestimated dust emissions and did not lift up dust high enough for ensuing long-range transport.
Cited articles
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Editorial statement
Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to human health, and many of the adverse health effects can be attributed to aerosols. In addition, aerosols play an important role in regulating climate, both through direct effects and through cloud formation. Aerosols can be detected using satellite-based instruments, but due to the broad range of characteristics and their variability in space and time, aerosol retrieval by remote sensing is not trivial.
This highlight paper presents the combination of data from six satellite instruments that complement each other. Three of the satellites are in sun-synchronous orbits (observing the whole Earth once per day) and three in geo-stationary orbit (observing a portion of the Earth several times per hour). The paper shows that by combining data from the six instruments a high-quality, consistent data set can be created with a higher combined spatio-temporal resolution and less gaps than existing data sets. The freely available new aerosol data product is provided at 30 minute resolution and on a 0.25 degree grid in a format convenient for use in satellite studies or ingestion by models, providing data that will further advance the field of aerosol studies.
Air pollution is one of the greatest threats to human health, and many of the adverse health...
Short summary
In this study, for the first time, we combined aerosol data from six satellites using a unified algorithm. The global datasets are generated at a high spatial resolution of about 25 km with an interval of 30 min. The new datasets are compared against ground truth and verified. They will be useful for various applications such as air quality monitoring, climate research, pollution diurnal variability, long-range smoke and dust transport, and evaluation of regional and global models.
In this study, for the first time, we combined aerosol data from six satellites using a unified...
