Diurnal Variations of Optical Depth Observed at AERONET sites

A great deal of information and knowledge can be gleaned from space-borne instrument measurements and meteorological models. However, data from these sources must be validated through comparisons with local, ground-based observations. My research includes utilizing AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork), a ground-based remote sensing aerosol network established by NASA, to obtain globally distributed observations of spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD). This network will not only privilege me to aerosol optical depth but to aerosol size distribution and absorption properties as well. I will use the data provided to validate AOD products from MODIS. Another goal is to install and run Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models in conjunction with the satellite and ground-based data. The CMAQ models were created to improve the environmental management community's ability to evaluate the impact of air quality management practices for multiple pollutants at multiple scales and better scientists' ability to simulate chemical and physical interactions in the atmosphere. For this research, CMAQ modeling system will be used to simulate various chemical and physical processes that are important for understanding time and space distributions of aerosols. These models will be validated by both ground based and satellite data, which further implies the necessity and cohesiveness of the data retrieval methods and the modeling method.