Characterization and application of artificial light sources for nighttime aerosol optical depth retrievals using the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band

Zhang, Jianglong; Jaker, Shawn L.; Reid, Jeffrey S.; Miller, Steven D.; Solbrig, Jeremy; Toth, Travis D.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3209-2019

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3209-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Holistic Analysis of Aerosol in Littoral Environments - A...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3209-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 6

Research article

|

17 Jun 2019

Research article |

| 17 Jun 2019

Characterization and application of artificial light sources for nighttime aerosol optical depth retrievals using the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band

Jianglong Zhang, Shawn L. Jaker, Jeffrey S. Reid, Steven D. Miller, Jeremy Solbrig, and Travis D. Toth

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3209-2019-supplement

Data sets

The NOAA Comprehensive Large Array-Data Stewardship System NOAA https://www.avl.class.noaa.gov/saa/products/welcome

Aerosol Robotic Network NASA Goddard Space Flight Center https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Atmospheric Science Data Center NASA Langley Research Center https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/project/calipso/calipso_table

Short summary

Using nighttime observations from the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night band (DNB), the characteristics of artificial light sources are evaluated as functions of observation conditions, and incremental improvements are documented on nighttime aerosol retrievals on a regional scale. Results from the study indicate the potential of this method to begin filling critical gaps in diurnal aerosol optical thickness information at both regional and global scales.