First validation of GOME-2/MetOp absorbing aerosol height using EARLINET lidar observations
<p>The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instruments, aboard the Meteorological Operational (MetOp)-A, MetOp-B and MetOp-C satellite programme platforms, to deliver accurate geometrical features of lofted aerosol layers. For...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/3193/2021/acp-21-3193-2021.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of the
Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) instruments, aboard the
Meteorological Operational (MetOp)-A, MetOp-B and MetOp-C satellite programme platforms, to
deliver accurate geometrical features of lofted aerosol layers. For this
purpose, we use archived ground-based lidar data from stations available
from the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) database. The
data are post-processed using the wavelet covariance transform (WCT) method
in order to extract geometrical features such as the planetary boundary
layer (PBL) height and the cloud boundaries. To obtain a significant number
of collocated and coincident GOME-2 – EARLINET cases for the period between
January 2007 and September 2019, 13 lidar stations, distributed over
different European latitudes, contributed to this validation. For the 172
carefully screened collocations, the mean bias was found to be <span class="inline-formula">−</span>0.18 <span class="inline-formula">±</span> 1.68 km,
with a near-Gaussian distribution. On a station basis, and with a
couple of exceptions where very few collocations were found, their mean
biases fall in the <span class="inline-formula">±</span> 1 km range with an associated standard deviation
between 0.5 and 1.5 km. Considering the differences, mainly due to the
temporal collocation and the difference, between the satellite pixel size
and the point view of the ground-based observations, these results can be
quite promising and demonstrate that stable and extended aerosol layers as
captured by the satellite sensors are verified by the ground-based data. We
further present an in-depth analysis of a strong and long-lasting Saharan
dust intrusion over the Iberian Peninsula. We show that, for this
well-developed and spatially well-spread aerosol layer, most GOME-2
retrievals fall within 1 km of the exact temporally collocated lidar
observation for the entire range of 0 to 150 km radii. This finding further
testifies for the capabilities of the MetOp-borne instruments to sense the
atmospheric aerosol layer heights.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |