The addition of near real-time and daily aerosol optical depth (AOD) layers from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) to NASA Worldview enables the comparison of ground-based (AERONET) with satellite-acquired AOD measurements. Ongoing wildfires in Canada due to drought conditions and exceptionally high temperatures provide an opportunity to show an image that includes both ground-based and satellite-acquired AOD data.
The base true-color corrected reflectance image was acquired by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite with an overlay of the VIIRS Dark Target Aerosol Optical Thickness (Land and Ocean) layer. Also overlaid on the image are AERONET AOD 500 nm daily data. AERONET readings are depicted as circles in varying shades of yellow to red.
AOD and aerosol optical thickness indicate the level at which particles in the air (aerosols) prevent light from traveling through the atmosphere. AOD is a dimensionless value and ranges from <0.0 to 5.0. From an observer on the ground, an AOD of less than 0.1 is characteristic of clear blue sky, bright Sun, and maximum visibility. As AOD increases to 0.5, 1.0, and greater than 3.0, aerosols become so dense that the Sun is obscured. Along with smoke from wildfires, other sources of aerosols include pollution from factories, dust from dust storms, sea salt, volcanic ash, and smog. Aerosols compromise human health when inhaled, particularly in individuals with asthma or other respiratory illnesses.
Hovering over the ground-based AERONET sites shows how ground-based AOD values roughly correspond to the satellite-based aerosol optical thickness measurements. Click on an AERONET site circle to find the site name, location, most recent AOD reading, and a link to the AERONET website to view more data. Learn more about AERONET Aerosol Layers in NASA Worldview.
Visit Worldview to visualize near real-time imagery from NASA's EOSDIS; find more in our Worldview weekly image archive.
Datasets
AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP_NRT doi:10.5067/VIIRS/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP_NRT.002
AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP doi:10.5067/VIIRS/AERDT_L2_VIIRS_SNPP.002