Spectral Effects of Absorbing Aerosols on Backscattered UV Radiation

Satellite measurements of backscattered UV radiation are sensitive to the presence of UV-absorbing aerosols in the atmosphere. These measurements are commonly used for determining the concentration of atmospheric trace gases such as O3, SO2, and H2CO.

The theoretical results in this dataset describe the effects of UV-absorbing mineral dust and carbonaceous smoke aerosols on these backscatter satellite measurements between 300-400 nm. The information provided is independent of any specific trace gas retrieval algorithm and does not require detailed a priori knowledge of aerosol and surface properties.

The results are derived from the analysis of the radiative transfer model simulations performed with the optical property data used in the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) UV aerosol retrieval algorithm, OMAERUV. Results from this algorithm have been validated with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations (Jethva & Torres, 2011; Torres et al., 2018).

This dataset is associated with the following publication:

Jethva, H., Haffner, D., Bhartia, P. K., & Torres, O. (2022). Estimating Spectral Effects of Absorbing Aerosols on Backscattered UV Radiation, Earth Space Sci., Accepted.