AMT Atmospheric Measurement Techniques AMT Atmos. Meas. Tech. 1867-8548 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/amt-6-1245-2013 Preliminary investigations toward nighttime aerosol optical depth retrievals from the VIIRS Day/Night Band Johnson R. S. 1 Zhang J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8647-3519 1 Hyer E. J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8636-2026 2 Miller S. D. 3 Reid J. S. 2 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA Marine Meteorology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, CA, USA Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA 14 05 2013 6 5 1245 1255 Copyright: © 2013 R. S. Johnson et al. 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/6/1245/2013/amt-6-1245-2013.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/6/1245/2013/amt-6-1245-2013.pdf

A great need exists for reliable nighttime aerosol products at high spatial and temporal resolution. In this concept demonstration study, using Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) observations on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, a new method is proposed for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical depth (<i>τ</i>) using the contrast between regions with and without artificial surface lights. Evaluation of the retrieved <i>τ</i> values against daytime AERONET data from before and after the overpass of the VIIRS satellite over the Cape Verde, Grand Forks, and Alta Floresta AERONET stations yields a coefficient of determination (<i>r</i><sup>2</sup>) of 0.71. This study suggests that the VIIRS DNB has the potential to provide useful nighttime aerosol detection and property retrievals.

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