Retrieval of aerosol optical depth over East Asia from a Geostationary satellite, MTSAT-IR

Aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieval from satellite remote sensing is essential to understand aerosol influence on earth climate system. An algorithm to retrieve AOD from geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite allows us to monitor sources, sinks and transport of aerosols in higher temporal resolution. Ih this study, using 30-day visible channel data from the Multi-Functional Transport Satellite-1 Replacement (MTSAT-IR) to estimate surface reflectance andDiscrete Ordinate Radiative (DISORT) model (6S) to calculate look up tables (LUT), AODs are retrieved at 0.55 jL/m over East Asia. The retrieved results are compared with the values of AERONET and MODIS. The calculated correlation coefficient(R) during March 2006 with AERONET showed 0.85 at Anmyon and 0.40 at Shirahama. The R for MODIS ranged from 0.2 to 0.96. This algorithm has relatively larger retrieval error than other multiple-channel algorithm due to the limitation in characterizing surface reflectance and aerosol property.