Resolution and Content Improvements to the MISR Operational Aerosol Product

Since early 2000, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite has been providing operational Level 2 (swath-based) aerosol optical depth (AOD) and particle property retrievals at 17.6 km spatial resolution. The performance of this product has been validated against ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations, model comparisons, and climatological assessments. MISR aerosol data have also played a major role in studies of the impacts of aerosols on climate and air quality. A major development effort has led to the release of an update to the operational (Version 22) MISR Level 2 aerosol products, which has been in production since December 2007. The new release is designated Version 23. Motivated by the needs of the air quality community, the resolution of the aerosol product has been increased to 4.4 km, allowing more detailed characterization of aerosol spatial variability, especially near local sources and in urban areas. The product content has been simplified and updated to include more robust measures of retrieval uncertainty and other fields to benefit users.

We will describe the major upgrades incorporated in Version 23 and present validation of the aerosol product against both the standard AERONET historical database, as well as high spatial density AERONET-DRAGON deployments. Comparisons will also be shown relative to the Version 22 aerosol product. Applications enabled by these product updates will be discussed, particularly for studies in urban areas.