Seasonality biases arise from the interplay of retrieval quality and solar zenith angle effects in passive sensor AOD products

Smith, Sarah; Wu, Yutian; Levy, Rob; Ting, Mingfang

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 21

Research article

|

03 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 03 Nov 2025

Seasonality biases arise from the interplay of retrieval quality and solar zenith angle effects in passive sensor AOD products

Sarah Smith, Yutian Wu, Rob Levy, and Mingfang Ting

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14333-2025-supplement

Data sets

MODIS Atmosphere L2 Aerosol Product. NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System R. Levy et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD04_L2.061

CALIPSO Lidar Level 3 Tropospheric Aerosol Profiles, All Sky Data, Standard V4-20 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/CAL_LID_L3_Tropospheric_APro_AllSky-Standard-V4-20

CALIPSO Lidar Level 2 Aerosol Profile, V4-20 NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/CALIOP/CALIPSO/LID_L2_05KMAPRO-STANDARD-V4-20

SeaWiFS Deep Blue Aerosol Optical Depth and Angstrom Exponent Monthly Level 3 Data Gridded at 1.0 Degrees V004 N. Christina Hsu et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/SWDB/DATA304

NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and High-resolution Infra-Red Sounder (HIRS) Reflectance, Brightness Temperature, and Cloud Products from Pathfinder Atmospheres - Extended (PATMOS-x), Version 6.0 M. J. Foster et al. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5X9287S

MERRA-2 instM_3d_asm_Np: 3d,Monthly mean,Instantaneous,Pressure-Level,Assimilation,Assimilated Meteorological Fields V5.12.4 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) https://doi.org/10.5067/2E096JV59PK7

NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and High-resolution Infra-Red Sounder (HIRS) Reflectance, Brightness Temperature, and Cloud Products from Pathfinder Atmospheres - Extended (PATMOS-x) M. J. Foster et al. https://doi.org/10.7289/V5X9287S

AERDB_M3_VIIRS_SNPP - VIIRS/SNPP Deep Blue Level 3 monthly aerosol data, 1 x 1 degree grid NASA Earth Data https://doi.org/10.5067/VIIRS/AERDB_M3_VIIRS_SNPP.011

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Short summary

A lidar satellite instrument shows Arctic particulate matter is highest in winter and lowest in summer, while sunlight-based instruments show the opposite. When the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight-based measures increasingly decline relative to lidar (but only in certain cases), driving lower average winter values even beyond the Arctic. These seasonality biases are important for user guidance, while this new insight may help reduce particulate measurement uncertainties in complex scenes.