Applications of Satellite Data for Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) Retrievals and Validation with AERONET Data

Abstract

An understanding of the amount and type of aerosols present in the atmosphere is required for the atmospheric correction of satellite imagery. A sensitivity analysis of the atmospheric inputs to the MOD09 software has shown that uncertainty in the estimation of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) has the greatest impact on the accuracy of atmospheric correction of MODIS data. The MOD09 software used for the generation of surface reflectance products estimates the AOD of the atmosphere at the time of image acquisition. AOD measurements retrieved from MODIS were compared with near-simultaneous AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) data over three sites in Australia, using time-series of MODIS surface reflectance products. The results of the study provide an important independent validation of ACRES MODIS Surface Reflectance Products. This procedure may be applied to long time series MODIS data for estimating the accuracy of MOD09 retrieved AOD.