AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Editors' Highlight

In select case studies, MODIS-Terra is better than MODIS-Aqua at measuring mineral dust aerosols

Mineral dust aerosol, which affects climate by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, is among the most difficult aerosol species to measure quantitatively from space because the spatial inhomogeneity of dust plumes makes it difficult for remote sensing platforms to distinguish them from clouds. To evaluate the effectiveness of different remote sensing platforms that measure mineral dust aerosols, Redemann et al. (2006) conducted a suite of statistical tests to compare satellite retrievals of spectral aerosol optical depth at visible to near infrared wavelenghts with suborbital data collected by the NASA Ames Airborne Tracking Sun photometer. They found that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra retrievals agreed better with the suborbital observations than did the MODIS-Aqua retrievals. They hypothesized that the cause of the differences between Terra and Aqua could be instrument calibration.

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