Monitoring aerosol over Europe using AATSR. HIRAM final report

Aerosol data form the AATSR satellite were, in general, found to be of lower quality than those of the MODIS satelitte for 2003. Improvement of the cloud detection in AATSR data will be necessary before these data can be used to improve the mapping of particulate matter concentrations.

These findings are forthcoming from an investigation on the use of AATSR satellite measurements to improve the mapping of particulate matter in Europe. The investigation was prompted by the fact that different measurement methods are used in various EU Member States, which hampers a comparison of particulate matter concentrations across Europe. This investigation followed up the PARMA project, in which a similar study was performed using MODIS data. The most important error source in the AATSR data is related to an inadequate method for cloud detection, which leads to erroneously high aerosol amounts.