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Relationship between column aerosol optical thickness and in situ ground based dust concentrations over Barbados
Author(s) -
Smirnov A.,
Holben B. N.,
Savoie D.,
Prospero J. M.,
Kaufman Y. J.,
Tanre D.,
Eck T. F.,
Slutsker I.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl011336
Subject(s) - aeronet , aerosol , environmental science , linear regression , atmospheric sciences , in situ , optical depth , correlation coefficient , remote sensing , meteorology , geology , geography , mathematics , statistics
Aerosol optical depth measurements over Barbados acquired through the AERONET network are analyzed. Optical depth shows a pronounced seasonal pattern, with a maximum observed during summer. The temporal trends of the sunphotometry data were similar to those of ground‐based dust concentration measurements. A simple linear regression relationship has been established between mean monthly values of aerosol optical depth and dust concentrations (correlation coefficient r=0.93), which allows the estimation of optical depth for any specific time period when dust concentration measurements are available. The robustness of the regression was validated with an independent data set.