Aerosol type detection using satellite remote sensing over the South-East Asia

Aerosols affect the Earth's climate by scattering and absorbing radiation and by altering the cloud microphysics. Since these effects are different from one type to the other, aerosol type detection from satellite remote sensing is important. This study shows temporal and spatial distribution of four major aerosol types (dust, carbonaceous, seasalt and sulfate) retrieved by MODIS-OMI algorithm (cf. Jeong and Li, 2005) and 4-channel algorithm (Higurashi and Nakajima, 2002) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) data over the South-East Asia. Retrieved results show that there exist complex types of aerosol over the South-East Asia from emitted and transported source. In general, two different aerosol classification algorithm make reasonably consistent results. Dust type aerosol usually occurred mixed with carbonaceous type aerosol. It implies that the dust type aerosol is loaded and transported with polluted air mass. The evidence of polluted air mass in the continent can transport to long distance is also captured, that is, over the remote ocean area, not only seasalt type aerosol but also sulfate type aerosol is detected. Validation of the results with ground-based chemistry measurements or chemical transfer model (CTM) and separate estimation of the different aerosol optical depths are desirable.