Airborne measurements of urban surface reflectivity and albedo

Airborne measurements of spectral upward radiance and irradiance over the city of Zhongshan, China, were used to examine the heterogeneity of reflection properties of urban surfaces. After the surface reflectivity was derived from the airborne measurements, ratios of surface reflectivity at 466 and 644 nm wavelengths were calculated for the present case study. Implementing the derived ratios into the operational aerosol algorithm over land for the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, enabled us to quantify the influence of the assumptions made for the estimation of the surface reflectivity at 466 nm on the retrieved aerosol optical depth.