PNNL

Abstract

The sensitivity of accurate polarized reflectance measurements over a broad spectral (410 -2250 nm) and angular (±60° from nadir) range to the presence of aerosols over land is analyzed and the consequent ability to retrieve the aerosol burden and microphysical model is assessed. Here we present a new approach to the correction of polarization observations for the effects of the surface that uses longer wavelength observations to provide a direct estimate of the surface polarized reflectance. This approach to surface modeling is incorporated into an optimal estimation framework for retrieving the particle number density and a detailed aerosol microphysical model: effective radius, effective variance and complex refractive index of aerosols. A sensitivity analysis shows that the uncertainties in aerosol optical thickness (AOT) increase with AOT while the uncertainties in the microphysical model decrease. Of particular note is that the uncertainty in the single scattering albedo is less than 0.05 by the time the AOT is greater than 0.2. We also find that calibration is the major source of uncertainty and that perfect angular and spectral correlation of calibration errors reduces the uncertainties in retrieved quantities compared with the case of uncorrelated errors. Finally, in terms of required spectral range, we observe that shorter wavelength (