Exploring the relation between aerosol optical depth and PM2.5 at Cabauw, the Netherlands

Estimates of PM2.5 distributions based on satellite data depend critically on an established relation between AOD and ground level PM2.5. In this study we performed an experiment at Cabauw to establish a relation between AOD and PM2.5 for the Netherlands. A first inspection of the AERONET L1.5 AOD and PM2.5 data showed a low correlation between the two properties. The AERONET L1.5 showed relatively many observations of high AOD values paired to low PM2.5 values, which hinted cloud contamination. Various methods were used to detect cloud contamination in the AERONET data to substantiate this hy... Mehr ...