Retrieval of aerosol properties over land and ocean by exploiting the synergy of GOME and ATSR-2 data

Satellite observation of aerosols is limited to the oceans or UV absorbing aerosols. To overcome these restrictions the new synergetic aerosol retrieval method SYNAER (synergetic aerosol retrieval) was developed. SYNAER delivers boundary layer aerosol optical thickness (BLAOT) and type over both land and ocean. The high spatial resolution of the radiometer ATSR-2 permits cloud detection, BLAOT calculation over automatically selected dark pixels and surface albedo correction for a set of different boundary layer aerosol mixtures. After spatial mapping and integration of ATSR-pixels to pixels of the spectrometer GOME these parameters are used to simulate spectra for the same set of different aerosol mixtures. A least square fit of these spectra to the measured GOME spectrum delivers the BLAOT value and the aerosol mixture. First case studies using ground based sun-photometer measurements show a good agreement