Extended aerosol and surface characterization from S5P/TROPOMI with GRASP algorithm. Part II: Global validation and Intercomparison

• Published in: Remote sensing of environment 2024-11, Vol.313, p.114374, Article 114374
• Main Authors: Chen, Cheng, Litvinov, Pavel, Dubovik, Oleg, Bindreiter, Lukas, Matar, Christian, Fuertes, David, Lopatin, Anton, Lapyonok, Tatyana, Lanzinger, Verena, Hangler, Andreas, Aspetsberger, Michael, de Graaf, Martin, Tilstra, Lieuwe Gijsbert, Stammes, Piet, Dandocsi, Alexandru, Gasbarra, Daniele, Fluck, Elody, Zehner, Claus, Retscher, Christian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosol and surface characterization; Environmental Sciences; Satellite remote sensing; Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI; Validation and inter-comparison
• ISSN: 0034-4257; 1879-0704
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2024.114374

This paper is the second part of companion papers describing the development of GRASP approach for aerosol and surface retrieval from Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI. Here we focus on the S5P/TROPOMI GRASP aerosol and surface products global validation and systematic intercomparison with other products from independent instruments and algorithms. Specifically, we have validated the S5P/TROPOMI GRASP, Suomi-NPP/VIIRS DB and MODIS/TERRA DT + DB aerosol products with the ground-based AERONET referenced measurements using the same methodology and intercompare the validation results. In addition, the global pixel-to-pixel intercomparisons of the aerosol products (AOD, fine/coarse mode AOD and SSA) are performed over different surfaces, i.e., ocean and land surface with different NDVIs. Besides, we compared the S5P/TROPOMI GRASP, MODIS MCD43 surface BRDF/albedo as well as OMI, GOME-2 and SCIAMACHY Lambertian-Equivalent Reflectivity (LER) albedo climatology developed by Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) with the surface reference dataset generated based on the synergetic retrieval of AERONET and S5P/TROPOMI measurements. Finally, the intercomparisons of the surface BRDF and albedo datasets were performed globally at the UV, VIS, NIR and SWIR parts of the spectrum. Overall, generally good agreement was observed between independent aerosol and surface datasets with a high percentage of pixels satisfying the Optimal and Target requirements. We would emphasize two advantages for TROPOMI/GRASP aerosol and surface products: (i) it provides spectral AOD together with detailed aerosol properties, such as fine/coarse mode AOD, spectral AAOD and SSA at UV, VIS, NIR and SWIR wavelengths, which are important for constraining aerosol environmental and climate effects; (ii) the TROPOMI/GRASP aerosol and surface products are globally retrieved simultaneously in a fully consistent manner. •S5P/TROPOMI GRASP aerosol and surface products are validated and intercompared.•A remarkable agreement was found between TROPOMI/GRASP and VIIRS/DB spectral AOD.•TROPOMI/GRASP BRDF product show good agreement with MODIS MCD43 product globally.•TROPOMI/GRASP provides AOD, AODF, SSA, and BRDF, albedos at UV, VIS, NIR and SWIR.