Articles | Volume 24, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6385-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6385-2024
Research article
 | 
31 May 2024
Research article |  | 31 May 2024

Intercomparison of aerosol optical depths from four reanalyses and their multi-reanalysis consensus

Peng Xian, Jeffrey S. Reid, Melanie Ades, Angela Benedetti, Peter R. Colarco, Arlindo da Silva, Tom F. Eck, Johannes Flemming, Edward J. Hyer, Zak Kipling, Samuel Rémy, Tsuyoshi Thomas Sekiyama, Taichu Tanaka, Keiya Yumimoto, and Jianglong Zhang

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Cited articles

Atwood, S. A., Reid, J. S., Kreidenweis, S. M., Blake, D. R., Jonsson, H. H., Lagrosas, N. D., Xian, P., Reid, E. A., Sessions, W. R., and Simpas, J. B.: Size-resolved aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) properties in the remote marine South China Sea – Part 1: Observations and source classification, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 1105–1123, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1105-2017, 2017. 
Buchard, V., da Silva, A. M., Colarco, P. R., Darmenov, A., Randles, C. A., Govindaraju, R., Torres, O., Campbell, J., and Spurr, R.: Using the OMI aerosol index and absorption aerosol optical depth to evaluate the NASA MERRA Aerosol Reanalysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 5743–5760, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-5743-2015, 2015. 
Buchard, V., Randles, C. A., da Silva, A. M., Darmenov, A., Colarco, P. R., Govindaraju, R., Ferrare, R., Hair, J., Beyersdorf, A. J., Ziemba, L. D., and Yu, H.: The MERRA-2 Aerosol Reanalysis, 1980 Onward. Part II: Evaluation and Case Studies, J. Climate, 30, 6851–6872, https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-16-0613.1, 2017. 
Chin, M., Ginoux, P., Kinne, S., Torres, O., Holben, B. N., Duncan, B. N., Martin, R. V., Logan, J. A., Higurashi, A., and Nakajima, T.: Tropospheric aerosol optical thickness from the GOCART model and comparisons with satellite and sun photometer measurements, J. Atmos. Sci., 59, 461–483, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2002)059<0461:TAOTFT>2.0.CO;2, 2002. 
Colarco, P., da Silva, A., Chin, M., and Diehl, T.: Online simulations of global aerosol istributions in the NASA GEOS-4 model and comparisons to satellite and groundbased aerosol optical depth, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D14207, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009jd012820, 2010. 
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Short summary
The study compares and evaluates monthly AOD of four reanalyses (RA) and their consensus (i.e., ensemble mean). The basic verification characteristics of these RA versus both AERONET and MODIS retrievals are presented. The study discusses the strength of each RA and identifies regions where divergence and challenges are prominent. The RA consensus usually performs very well on a global scale in terms of how well it matches the observational data, making it a good choice for various applications.
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