Taozhong Huang

Weather and Climate Systems 

A Comparison of MISR and MAIAC Surface Climatology and Conversion of Their Model Parameters 

Taozhong Huang 

Wednesday, May 1st 

NWC 1350 / 3:00 PM

Abstract:NASA’s MAIA (Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols) investigation will seek to understand how different types of aerosols affect human health. In order to better constrain aerosol properties in MAIA retrieval, we need a priori of surface reflectance from climatology. To this end, MISR (Multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer) and MAIAC (Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction) surface climatology are available datasets. To assess their consistency in modeling surface reflection, we have compared the surface directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) from the two surface datasets. We have found negligible and non-negligible differences of surface albedo, spatial variability, and spectral invariance of BRDF shapes from the two datasets for regular surfaces (e.g. those covered b desert and vegetation) and bright surfaces (e.g. those covered by snow and ice), respectively. Due to MAIAC’s broader spectral coverage (closer to MAIA’s spectral range), we have decided to use MAIAC dataset as surface a priori to constrain MAIA aerosol retrieval, and have developed an algorithm to convert MAIAC’s Ross-Li surface model parameters into MAIA’s Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete’s model parameters.