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© 2023. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of the Sentinel-5P TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to derive accurate geometrical features of lofted aerosol layers, selecting the Mediterranean Basin as the study area. Comparisons with ground-based correlative measurements constitute a key component in the validation of passive and active satellite aerosol products. For this purpose, we use ground-based observations from quality-controlled lidar stations reporting to the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). An optimal methodology for validation purposes has been developed and applied using the EARLINET optical profiles and TROPOMI aerosol products, aiming at the in-depth evaluation of the TROPOMI aerosol layer height (ALH) product for the period 2018 to 2022 over the Mediterranean Basin. Seven EARLINET stations were chosen, taking into consideration their proximity to the sea, which provided 63 coincident aerosol cases for the satellite retrievals. In the following, we present the first validation results for the TROPOMI/S5P ALH using the optimized EARLINET lidar products employing the automated validation chain designed for this purpose. The quantitative validation at pixels over the selected EARLINET stations illustrates that the TROPOMI ALH product is consistent with the EARLINET lidar products, with a high correlation coefficient R=0.82 (R=0.51) and a mean bias of -0.51±0.77 km and -2.27±1.17 km over ocean and land, respectively. Overall, it appears that aerosol layer altitudes retrieved from TROPOMI are systematically lower than altitudes from the lidar retrievals. High-albedo scenes, as well as low-aerosol-load scenes, are the most challenging for the TROPOMI retrieval algorithm, and these results testify to the need to further investigate the underlying cause. This work provides a clear indication that the TROPOMI ALH product can under certain conditions achieve the required threshold accuracy and precision requirements of 1 km, especially when only ocean pixels are included in the comparison analysis. Furthermore, we describe and analyse three case studies in detail, one dust and two smoke episodes, in order to illustrate the strengths and limitations of the TROPOMI ALH product and demonstrate the presented validation methodology. The present analysis provides important additions to the existing validation studies that have been performed so far for the TROPOMI S5P ALH product, which were based only on satellite-to-satellite comparisons.

Details

Title
Validation of the TROPOMI/S5P aerosol layer height using EARLINET lidars
Author
Michailidis, Konstantinos 1 ; Maria-Elissavet Koukouli 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Balis, Dimitris 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Veefkind, J Pepijn 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; de Graaf, Martin 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lucia, Mona 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Papagianopoulos, Nikolaos 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Pappalardo, Gesolmina 4 ; Tsikoudi, Ioanna 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Amiridis, Vassilis 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marinou, Eleni 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gialitaki, Anna 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mamouri, Rodanthi-Elisavet 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Nisantzi, Argyro 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bortoli, Daniele 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Maria João Costa 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Salgueiro, Vanda 9 ; Papayannis, Alexandros 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mylonaki, Maria 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lucas Alados-Arboledas 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Romano, Salvatore 12 ; Perrone, Maria Rita 12 ; Baars, Holger 13   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 
 Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, 3731 GA, the Netherlands; Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Technology Delft (TU Delft), Delft, 2628 CN, the Netherlands 
 Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, 3731 GA, the Netherlands 
 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di Metodologie per l'Analisi Ambientale (CNR-IMAA), C. da S. Loja, Tito Scalo (PZ), Italy 
 Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, 15236 Athens, Greece; Department of Physics, Section of Environmental Physics-Meteorology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784 Zografou, Greece 
 Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, 15236 Athens, Greece 
 Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics, Physics Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, 15236 Athens, Greece 
 Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus; ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence, Limassol, Cyprus 
 Earth Remote Sensing Laboratory (EaRSLab), University of Évora, Évora, 7000-671, Portugal; Institute of Earth Sciences (ITC) and Department of Physics, University of Évora, Évora, 7000-671, Portugal 
10  Laser Remote Sensing Unit, Department of Physics, National and Technical University of Athens, Zografou, 15780, Greece 
11  Andalusian Institute for Earth System Research, Department of Applied Physics, University of Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain 
12  Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia and Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy 
13  Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), Leipzig, Germany 
Pages
1919-1940
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
16807316
e-ISSN
16807324
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2772941598
Copyright
© 2023. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.