i Detection of Smoke and Dust Aerosols Using Multi-sensor Satellite ...

Based on the detection results, the vertical and horizontal information about several dust
aerosols occurred in 2008 spring season are summarized.
The MODIS spatial characterization with the SRCA and ground target approach is
introduced and the impact of BBR shift, or mis-registration, on MODIS L1B
measurements and dust aerosol detection is assessed. The impacts on L1B are generally
small and are different in both directions due to the strong bow-tie effect in scan
directions. The largest relative error of all RSBs in Aqua MODIS is less than 0.1% in the
select case, which is negligible in real applications. The theoretical analysis shows that
the influence of mis-registration on dust detection is larger than on L1B measurements.
The influence on dust aerosol detection results is small at the homogenous or
semi-homogenous areas but relative large at the mixed areas. The increase of correlation
coefficient demonstrates that the quality of science data product can be improved by
shifting a pixel in track direction. This study provides valuable information for the
sensors without spatial characterization capability and also for the specification design of
future sensors.
8.2 Limitations
This dissertation is executed in some limited condition due to the data availability in
time and space. In the absence of suitable laboratory and field data, such as the spectral
curves of the smoke, some results are thus mainly based on the model simulation and
limited available datasets. Statistical analysis of the training data is a primary ways in this
research to achieve the desired spectral features of the smoke/dust. Although the
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