Detection of Asian Dust Air-mass based on Short Wavelength Observation of SeaWiFS

  • Fukushima, H. (School of High-Technology for Human Welfare, Tokai University) ;
  • Hagihara, Y. (School of High-Technology for Human Welfare, Tokai University) ;
  • Hoshikuma, Y. (School of High-Technology for Human Welfare, Tokai University) ;
  • Ohta, S. (Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University) ;
  • Uno, I. (Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University)
  • Published : 2003.11.03

Abstract

To detect dust-loaded air-mass over land and ocean, we propose an index, which is essentially the difference in Rayleigh-corrected reflectance between 412 and 443 nm bands of SeaWiFS. Radiative transfer simulations are conducted to show that the index is linearly related to the optical thickness of modeled dust-contaminated aerosol while showing insensitivity against non-absorbing model aerosols. Asian SeaWiFS data set of 2001 spring is used to produce daily composite imagery of the index, which compares well with TOMS Aerosol Index and with predicted aerosol optical thickness predicted by CFORS chemical weather forecast.

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