Publications

Chen, SJ; Tong, BW; Dong, CZ; Wang, F; Chen, BL; Cheng, CH; Zhang, XY; Liu, D (2020). Retrievals of aerosol layer height during dust events over the taklimakan and gobi desert. JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE SPECTROSCOPY & RADIATIVE TRANSFER, 254, 107198.

Abstract
This study retrieves and evaluates aerosol layer height (ALH) during spring dust storm events observed over the Taklimakan and Gobi Desert. A novel strategy is proposed to identify single- or multi-layered aerosol scenarios in wide-swath passive sensor images from Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), aided by profiles of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), and use different sets of look-up tables (LUTs) to retrieve ALH accordingly. The strategy combines the advantage of two independent methods-the ability to expand three-dimensional atmospheric structure using the spectral radiance matching (SRM) method, and the ability to estimate ALH over a long distance using the aerosol single-scattering albedo and height estimation (ASHE) method. From 2012 to 2016, ALH during 4 severe dust storms is retrieved over the Taklimakan and Gobi Desert. Analysis shows that the average height and occurrence frequency retrieved fall in the same range with results from previous studies. Comparisons with ALH inferred from CALIOP profiles indicate that the combined ASHE-SRM method has improved the overall performance. The estimated ALH correlates well (R = 0.68) with those measured by CALIOP, except for areas with potential cloud contamination, but slightly overestimated over the multi-layered area; the mean absolute difference (MAD) is 1.34 +/- 1.02 km. The reason of general overestimation is exanimated with a case study of dust storm occurred on April 23, 2012. With additional ALH information retrieved over broad area, the ASHE-SRM method has great potential to improving our understanding of aerosols and related impacts. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOI:
10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107198

ISSN:
0022-4073