Remote sensing of urban aerosol from space

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The objective of the project is to improve the understanding of urban aersols and their influences on the chemical weather and climate. The work is planned to be performed using data from ground spectrophotometers (AERONET), lidars (EARLINET) and multiple optical instruments (e.g., MERIS, AATSR, MODIS, SeaWiES, SCIAMACHY, GOME, and POLDER) positioned on polar orbiting satellites. Optical instruments on geostationary orbits (e.g., SEVIRI on MSG) are of a particular value for the detection of temporal trends in air pollution. Therefore, the ability of retrieving urban aerosol characteristics from radiometers on geostationary orbits will be studies as well. Satellite remote sensing of urban aerosols requires knowledge of the underlying surface spectral reflectance A (λ) (λ is the wavelength). Therefore, a technique for the simulations determation of the underlying surface reflectance and the spectral aerosol optical thickness (AOT) τ from space measurements over urban areas will be developed. The information on AOT and the measured slope of the function 1n τ(λ) will be used to determine the column concentration of particulate matter over major urban areas worldwide. This will enable us to study temporal trends in AOT and aerosol load over major world cities. It is planned to use SeaWiFS data (1997-2007) for studies of the long term statistics of aerosol load in major cities including Tokyo, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Beijing, and Dehli.