F. Ducos

GRASP: a versatile algorithm for characterizing the atmosphere

GRASP (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties) is the first unified algorithm to be developed for characterizing atmospheric properties gathered from a variety of remote sensing observations (an introductory video is available elsewhere1). GRASP is based on a recent algorithm2 created to improve aerosol retrieval from the French Space Agency’s PARASOL3 imager over bright surfaces like deserts where high surface reflectance dwarfs the signal from aerosols. Moreover, GRASP relies on the heritage of retrieval advances4–7 implemented for AERONET,8 a worldwide network of over 200 radiometer sites that generate the data used to validate nearly all satellite observations of atmospheric aerosols. The AERONET retrievals derive detailed aerosol properties,6 including absorption, providing information of vital importance for reducing uncertainty in assessments of climate change. GRASP is based on several generalization principles with the idea of developing a scientifically rigorous, versatile, practically efficient, transparent, and accessible algorithm. There are two main independent modules. The first, numerical inversion, includes general mathematical operations not related to the particular physical nature of the inverted data (in this case, remote sensing observations). The second module, the forward model, was developed to simulate various atmospheric remote sensing observations. Numerical inversion is implemented as a statistically optimized fitting of observations following the multi-term least squares method (LSM) strategy, which combines9 the advantages of a variety of approaches and provides transparency and flexibility in developing algorithms that invert passive and/or active observations and derive several groups of Figure 1. Diagram illustrating the principle of combined synergetic processing of complementary observations using a multi-pixel2 retrieval approach. CALIPSO is a joint lidar mission of NASA and the French Space Agency, which also manages the PARASOL imager. AERONET is a worldwide network of radiometer sites.

Toward New Inferences about Cloud Structures from Multidirectional Measurements in the Oxygen A Band: Middle-of-Cloud Pressure and Cloud Geometrical Thickness from POLDER-3/PARASOL

Abstract New evidence from collocated measurements, with support from theory and numerical simulations, that multidirectional measurements in the oxygen A band from the third Polarization and Directionality of the Earth’s Reflectances (POLDER-3) instrument on the Polarization and Anisotropy of Reflectances for Atmospheric Sciences coupled with Observations from a Lidar (PARASOL) satellite platform within the “A-Train” can help to characterize the vertical structure of clouds is presented. In the case of monolayered clouds, the standard POLDER cloud oxygen pressure product PO2 is shown to be sensitive to the cloud geometrical thickness H in two complementary ways: 1) PO2 is, on average, close to the pressure at the geometrical middle of the cloud layer (MCP) and methods are proposed for reducing the pressure difference PO2 − MCP and 2) the angular standard deviation of PO2 and the cloud geometrical thickness H are tightly correlated for liquid clouds. Accounting for cloud phase, there is thus the potential...

Global analysis of aerosol properties above clouds

[1]xa0The seasonal and spatial variability of Aerosol Above Cloud (AAC) properties are derived from passive satellite data for the year 2008. A significant amount of aerosols are transported above liquid water clouds on the global scale. For particles in the fine mode (i.e., radius smaller than 0.3 µm), including both clear-sky and AAC, retrievals increase the global mean aerosol optical thickness by 25(±6)%. The two main regions of originated anthropogenic AAC are the tropical Southeast Atlantic, for biomass-burning aerosols, and the North Pacific, mainly for pollutants. Man-made AAC are also detected over the Arctic during the spring. Mineral dust particles are detected above clouds within the so-called “dust belt” region (5–40° N). AAC may cause a warming effect and bias the retrieval of the cloud properties. This study will then help to better quantify the impacts of aerosols on clouds and climate.

Aerosol variability over East Asia as seen by POLDER space-borne sensors

[1]xa0This paper is devoted to analysis of aerosol distribution and variability over East Asia based on PARASOL/POLDER-3 aerosol products over land. We first compared POLDER-3 Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) with fine mode AOD (particles radius ≤ 0.30 μm) computed from AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) inversions over 14 sites. The rather good correlation (R ≈ 0.92) observed over land demonstrates the remarkable sensitivity of POLDER-3 retrievals to the smaller fraction of fine particles, mostly originating from anthropogenic sources. We analyzed the characteristics and seasonal variation of aerosol distribution over East Asia by considering 4 years of POLDER-3 Level 2 data (March 2005 to February 2009). Our study shows that the spatial distribution of fine-mode aerosols over East Asia, as retrieved from POLDER-3, is highly associated with human activities. Our work also evidenced a strong variability of seasonal fine-mode AOD patterns with geographical locations. Finally, the interannual variation during 2003–2009 periods of summer fine-mode AOD over North China, in particular the Beijing City region, was analyzed for the contribution to evaluating the regional impact of emission reduction enforced in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. We found that the summer average of fine-mode AOD exhibited relatively higher values in 2003, 2007, and 2008. The interannual variation patterns of monthly averaged AOD (June to August) shows that June generally exhibits the strongest variation and varies similarly to July, but differs from August. As a reference point, measured total AOD and fine-mode AOD computed from AERONET inversions in summer are also discussed for the Beijing City region.

Comparison of aerosol optical properties above clouds between POLDER and AeroCom models over the South East Atlantic Ocean during the fire season

Aerosol properties above clouds have been retrieved over the South East Atlantic Ocean during the fire season 2006 using satellite observations from POLDER (Polarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances). From June to October, POLDER has observed a mean Above-Cloud Aerosol Optical Thickness (ACAOT) of 0.28 and a mean Above-Clouds Single Scattering Albedo (ACSSA) of 0.87 at 550u2009nm. These results have been used to evaluate the simulation of aerosols above clouds in five Aerosol Comparisons between Observations and Models (Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport (GOCART), Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model 3 (HadGEM3), European Centre Hamburg Model 5-Hamburg Aerosol Module 2 (ECHAM5-HAM2), Oslo-Chemical Transport Model 2 (OsloCTM2), and Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS)). Most models do not reproduce the observed large aerosol load episodes. The comparison highlights the importance of the injection height and the vertical transport parameterizations to simulate the large ACAOT observed by POLDER. Furthermore, POLDER ACSSA is best reproduced by models with a high imaginary part of black carbon refractive index, in accordance with recent recommendations.

Global detection of absorbing aerosols over the ocean in the red and near infrared spectral region

The spatial and temporal variability of the aerosol Single Scattering Albedo (SSA at 865 nm) has been estimated over clear-sky ocean for 2006 by using measurements acquired by POLDER (Polarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances). Our estimates are correlated with sun-photometer retrievals (R = 0.63). Differences in SSA are generally around 0.05 and systematically fall below 0.055 for optical thicknesses ≥ 0.3 (at 865 nm) and modeling errors ≤ 3.0 %. Fine absorbing aerosols (radius ≤ 0.16 μm) are detected in many coastal regions. The lowest SSAs are retrieved over the southeast Atlantic during summer (0.80) whereas non-absorbing fine particles (≥ 0.98) are observed over the North Pacific. During winter, fine absorbing aerosols are detected together with mineral dust near the coasts of western Africa (0.90), over the tropical Atlantic (0.88) and around India (0.88). Long–range transport of absorbing species is also detected, as for instance over the Arctic. This study could help to constrain aerosol absorption and radiative forcing in models.

Retrieval of Desert Dust and Carbonaceous Aerosol Emissions over Africa from POLDER/PARASOL Products Generated by GRASP Algorithm

Understanding the role atmospheric aerosols play in the Earth–atmosphere system is limited by uncertainties in the knowledge of their distribution, composition and sources. In this paper, we use the GEOS-Chem based inverse modelling framework for retrieving desert dust (DD), black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) aerosol emissions simultaneously. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) retrieved from the multi-angular and polarimetric POLDER/PARASOL measurements generated by the GRASP algorithm (hereafter PARASOL/GRASP) have been assimilated. First, the inversion framework is validated in a series of numerical tests conducted with synthetic PARASOL-like data. These tests show that the framework allows for retrieval of the distribution and strength of aerosol emissions. The uncertainty of retrieved daily emissions in error free conditions is below 25.8 % for DD, 5.9 % for BC and 26.9 % for OC. In addition, the BC emission retrieval is sensitive to BC refractive index, which could produce an additional factor of 1.8 differences for total BC emissions. The approach is then applied to 1 year (December 2007 to November 2008) of data over the African and Arabian Peninsula region using PARASOL/GRASP spectral AOD and AAOD at six wavelengths (443, 490, 565, 670, 865 and 1020 nm). Analysis of the resulting retrieved emissions indicates 1.8 times overestimation of the prior DD online mobilization and entrainment model. For total BC and OC, the retrieved emissions show a significant increase of 209.9 %–271.8 % in comparison to the prior carbonaceous aerosol emissions. The model posterior simulation with retrieved emissions shows good agreement with both the AOD and AAOD PARASOL/GRASP products used in the inversion. The fidelity of the results is evaluated by comparison of posterior simulations with measurements from AERONET that are completely independent measurements and more temporally frequent than PARASOL observations. To further test the robustness of our posterior emissions constrained using PARASOL/GRASP, the posterior emissions are implemented in the GEOS-5/GOCART model and the consistency of simulated AOD and AAOD with other independent measurements (MODIS and OMI) demonstrates promise in applying this database for modelling studies.

Description and applications of a mobile system performing on-roadaerosol remote sensing and in situ measurements

The majority of ground-based aerosols observations are limited to fixed locations, narrowing the knowledge on their spatial 15 variability. In order to overcome this issue, a compact Mobile Aerosol Monitoring System (MAMS) was developed to explore the aerosol vertical and spatial variability. This mobile laboratory is equipped with a micropulse lidar, a sunphotometer and an aerosol spectrometer. It is distinguished by other transportable platforms through its ability to perform onroad measurements and its unique feature lies in the sun-photometer capable to track the sun during motion. The system presents a great flexibility, being able to respond quickly in case of sudden aerosol events such as pollution episodes, dust, 20 fire or volcano outbreaks. On-road mapping of aerosol physical parameters such as attenuated aerosol backscatter, aerosol optical depth, particle number and mass concentration and size distribution is achieved through the MAMS. The performance of remote sensing instruments on-board has been evaluated through intercomparison with instruments in reference networks (i.e. AERONET and EARLINET), showing that the system is capable of providing high quality data. This also illustrates the application of such system for instrument intercomparison field campaigns. Applications of the 25 mobile system have been exemplified through two case studies in northern France. MODIS AOD data was compared to ground-based mobile sun-photometer data. A good correlation was observed with R of 0.76, showing the usefulness of the mobile system for validation of satellite-derived products. The performance of BSC-DREAM8b dust model has been tested by comparison of results from simulations to the lidar-sun-photometer derived extinction coefficient and mass concentration profiles. The comparison indicated that observations and model are in good agreement in describing the vertical variability 30 of dust layers. Moreover, on-road measurements of PM10 were compared with modelled PM10 concentrations and with ATMO Hauts-de-France and AIRPARIF air quality in situ measurements, presenting an excellent agreement in horizontal

Remote sensing of aerosols above cloud using polarization measurements from POLDER/PARASOL: Comparison with LIDAR caliop

Most of the current aerosol retrievals from passive sensors are restricted to cloud-free scenes, which strongly reduces our ability to monitor the aerosol properties at a global scale. The presence of aerosols above clouds affect the polarized radiation reflected by the clouds, as shown by the measurements provided by the POlarization and Directionality of Earth Reflectances (POLDER) instrument. An approximate model of the polarized signal was developed and used to retrieve the Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) above clouds. Results obtained with this method in various regions of the world are presented. In a second part, we present additional results obtained with an improved method that allows the retrieval of a detailed microphysical model of the observed particles. The retrieved POLDER AOTs are compared to AOTs retrieved by a spaceborne lidar in case of a dust layer transported above clouds. The advantages and limitations of the different methods are discussed.

Water vapor retrieval for the POLDER-2 mission

A water vapour retrieval algorithm updated for the second POLDER mission onboard ADEOS-2 is described. The relation between TCWV and 910 to 865 nm reflectance ratio is parameterized with a polynomial fit, whose coefficients are determined by using SSM/I TCWV collocated observations over ocean as well as radiative transfer simulated data for higher, statistically less represented, water vapour contents. Spectral variations of the land surface reflectivity are accounted for by a correction factor using the atmospheric window 765 and 865 nm reflectances. Also, the possible bias due to aerosols or non-detected cirrus is evaluated.