SURFRAD Aerosol Optical Depth
SURFRAD includes ancillary data (e.g., cloud cover, moisture) that affect the transfer of solar and thermal infrared radiation to and from the surface. An aerosol optical depth product has been recently added.
Aerosol optical depth is a measure of the extinction of the solar beam by dust and haze. In other words, particles in the atmosphere (dust, smoke, pollution) can block sunlight by absorbing or by scattering light. AOD tells us how much direct sunlight is prevented from reaching the ground by these aerosol particles. It is a dimensionless number that is related to the amount of aerosol in the vertical column of atmosphere over the observation location.
A value of 0.01 corresponds to an extremely clean atmosphere, and a value of 0.4 would correspond to a very hazy condition. An average aerosol optical depth for the U.S. is 0.1 to 0.15.
Instrumentation |
Data from the MultiFilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer are used to compute aerosol optical depth at SURFRAD stations. |
Data Processing |
The SURFRAD MFRSR calibration and AOD algorithms combine traditional methods with nuances that make this product as accurate as possible. |
Plot AOD |
Daily time series of cloud-screened AOD data for specific stations and MFRSR channels may be plotted or downloaded as text files. |