Aerosol layer height (ALH) retrievals from oxygen absorption bands: intercomparison and validation among different satellite platforms, GEMS, EPIC, and TROPOMI

Kim, Hyerim; Chen, Xi; Wang, Jun; Lu, Zhendong; Zhou, Meng; Carmichael, Gregory R.; Park, Sang Seo; Kim, Jhoon

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-327-2025

Articles | Volume 18, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-327-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

GEMS: first year in operation (AMT/ACP inter-journal SI)

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-327-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 2

Research article

|

21 Jan 2025

Research article |

| 21 Jan 2025

Aerosol layer height (ALH) retrievals from oxygen absorption bands: intercomparison and validation among different satellite platforms, GEMS, EPIC, and TROPOMI

Hyerim Kim, Xi Chen, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Meng Zhou, Gregory R. Carmichael, Sang Seo Park, and Jhoon Kim

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-327-2025-supplement

Data sets

Absorbing Aerosol Optical Central Height (AOCH) retrieved from TROPOMI with UIowa's AOCH-O2AB algorithm Xi Chen https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10407271

DSCOVR EPIC Aerosol Optical Centroid Height NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/EPIC/DSCOVR/L2_AOCH.001

GEMS Level2 AEH V2.0 and AERAOD V2.0 National Institute of Environmental Research Environmental Satellite Center https://nesc.nier.go.kr/en/html/datasvc/index.do

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Aerosol Profile, V4-21 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro-Standard-V4-21

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Aerosol Profile, V4-51 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L2_05kmAPro-Standard-V4-51

Model code and software

hkim144/ALH_comparison: ALH comparison (v0.1-beta) Hyerim Kim https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10408292

Short summary

We compare passive aerosol layer height (ALH) retrievals from the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), and Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) with lidar. GEMS shows a lower correlation (R = 0.64) than EPIC and TROPOMI (R > 0.7) but with minimal bias (0.1 km vs. overestimated by ~0.8 km). GEMS performance is improved for an ultraviolet aerosol index ≥ 3. EPIC and GEMS ALH diurnal variation differs slightly.