Articles | Volume 18, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2553-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2553-2025
Research article
 | 
16 Jun 2025
Research article |  | 16 Jun 2025

Improvements in aerosol layer height retrievals from TROPOMI oxygen A-band measurements by surface albedo fitting in optimal estimation

Martin de Graaf, Maarten Sneep, Mark ter Linden, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, David P. Donovan, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, and J. Pepijn Veefkind

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Cited articles

Chen, X., Wang, J., Xu, X., Zhou, M., Zhang, H., Castro Garcia, L., Colarco, P. R., Janz, S. J., Yorks, J., McGill, M., Reid, J. S., de Graaf, M., and Kondragunta, S.: First retrieval of absorbing aerosol height over dark target using TROPOMI oxygen B band: Algorithm development and application for surface particulate matter estimates, Remote Sens. Environ., 265, 112674, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112674, 2021. a, b
de Graaf, M., Tilstra, L. G., Wang, P., and Stammes, P.: Retrieval of the aerosol direct radiative effect over clouds from spaceborne spectrometry, J. Geophys. Res., 117, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD017160, 2012. a
de Graaf, M., Sarna, K., Brown, J., Tenner, E. V., Schenkels, M., and Donovan, D. P.: Aerosol first indirect effect of African smoke at the cloud base of marine cumulus clouds over Ascension Island, southern Atlantic Ocean, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5373–5391, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5373-2023, 2023. a
de Graaf, M., de Haan, J., and Sanders, A.: TROPOMI ATBD of the Aerosol Layer Height product, Tech. rep., KNMI, 2024. a
de Haan, J. F., Wang, P., Sneep, M., Veefkind, J. P., and Stammes, P.: Introduction of the DISAMAR radiative transfer model: determining instrument specifications and analysing methods for atmospheric retrieval (version 4.1.5), Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7031–7050, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7031-2022, 2022. a
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Short summary
The aerosol layer height (ALH) from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) has been constantly improved since its release in 2019. Over bright surfaces, fitting the albedo improved the retrieval, as shown for a set of situations, ranging from multiple layers of smoke to thick desert dust plumes and low-altitude industrial pollution. The latest results of the operational ALH are compared to profiles from the ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID) on board the recently launched EarthCARE mission.
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