Aerosol type over east Asian retrieval using total and polarized remote Sensing

Abstract Satellite observation in East Asia is important because aerosols of this region are very complex, not only from anthropogenic but also from natural sources, which have been recognized as a major source of regional and global air pollution. However, retrieving aerosols properties over land is difficult because of surface reflection, complex aerosol composition, and aerosol absorption. In this study, a new aerosol retrieval method including two steps was developed to invert AOT and aerosol type using PARASOL TOA measurements. Both reflectance (490 nm) and polarized reflectance (670 nm and 865 nm) are used in the algorithm to improve the accuracy of retrieved AOT and aerosol type. AOT was determined by comparing the aerosol reflectance and polarized reflectance with pre-calculated LUTs of six aerosols clustered from the inversion products of AERONET sites in East Asia. The comparison between PARASOL and AERONET showed improvement in total AOT using the suggested methodology. Three case studies show inverted aerosol AOT and types agreed well with specific aerosol types.