A NEW ALGORITHM FOR THE AOD INVERSION FROM NOAA/AVHRR DATA

Abstract. The advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite is one of the earliest data applied in aerosol research. The dense dark vegetation (DDV) algorithm is a popular method for the present land aerosol retrieval. One of the most crucial steps in the DDV algorithm with AVHRR data is estimating the land surface reflectance (LSR). However, LSR cannot be easily estimated because of the lack of a 2.13 μm band. In this article, the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index product (MYD13) is introduced to support the estimation of AVHRR LSR. The relationship between MODIS NDVI and the AVHRR LSR of the visible band is analysed to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) from AVHRR data. Retrieval experiments are carried out in mid-eastern America. The AOD data from AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) measurements are used to evaluate the aerosol retrieval from AVHRR data, the results indicate that about 74 % of the retrieved AOD are within the expected error range of ±(0.05 + 0.2), and a cross comparison of the AOD retrieval results with the MODIS aerosol product (MYD04) shows that the AOD datasets have a similar spatial distribution.