MODIS AEROSOL RETRIEVAL IN FINE SPATIAL RESOLUTION FOR LOCAL AND URBAN SCALE AIR QUALITY MONITORING APPLICATIONS

Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosol using MODIS satellite data has been proven to be very useful in global/regional scale aerosol monitoring. Due to their large spatial resolution of $10km^2$ MODIS aerosol optical thickness (AOT) data have limitations for local/urban scale aerosol monitoring applications. Modified Bremen Aerosol Retrieval (BAER) algorithm developed by von Hoyningen-Huene et al. (2003) and Lee et al. (2005) has been applied in this study to retrieve AOT in fe resolutions of $500m^2$ over Korea. Look up tables (LUTs) were constructed from the aerosol properties based on sun-photometer observation and radiation transfer model calculations. It was found that relative error between the satellite products and the ground observations was within about $15\%$. Resulting AOT products were correlated with surface PMIO concentration data. There was good correlation between MODIS AOT and surface PM concentration under certain atmospheric conditions, which supports the feasibility of using the high-resolution MODIS AOT for local and urban scale air quality monitoring