AATSR - AERONET aerosol optical depth comparison

A quick comparison between the aerosol optical depth seen from the Venise AERONET station (the platform) and that given by the ORAC AATSR retrieval has been done for the 1/9/2004 overpass.

The results are displayed below (click for a larger version):

AATSR - AERONET AOD comparsion
The plot shows the difference between the AATSR based optical depth and that given by the station (interpolated to 0.55 microns) over the northern Adriatic. The location of the station is indicated by the black star.

Unfortunately most of the area directly surrounding the station has been flagged as cloudy, however some conclusions can be drawn from the image. It is clear that the retrieval is not to be trusted over land, and the effect of approaching the area of sun-glint can be seen at the right of the swath. However the values over the Adriatic itself are certainly comparable to those seen from the AERONET site.

Maintained by Gareth Thomas