Analysis of Color and Particulate Depolarization Ratio Profiles for Aerosols using CALIPSO Level 2 Data

Abstract

Aerosols have an important impact on Earth’s climate system by absorbing, scattering and modifying cloud properties. There are many sources of aerosols; both natural and resulting from human activities with widely varying distribution both in space and time. In addition to aerosol columnar spatio-temporal variation, the vertical profile temporal studies provide valuable inputs to various climatic models and radiative transfer studies. This study focuses on the analysis of color ratio and particulate depolarization ratio profiles obtained from CALIPSO Level 2 data. Color ratio refers to the ratio of backscatter coefficient of particles at wavelength 1064 nm to that at 532 nm, which is a parameter for size of particles whereas particulate depolarization ratio is the ratio of perpendicular and parallel polarization components of backscatter coefficient. The study area taken is Dehradun, capital of Uttarakhand; the grid chosen for data processing extends from [29.0â—‹N to 31.6â—‹N and 76.03â—‹E to 80.03â—‹E]. Both day-time and night-time data sets for winter (December 2013 to February 2014) and summer (March to May 2014) are analysed. The satellite viewing zenith angle is chosen in such a way that the overpass of CALIPSO is closest to the study area.

Keywords: Aerosols, color ratio, particulate depolarization ratio, CALIPSO, backscatter coefficient

Cite this Article

Manu Mehta, Grishma Shaw. Analysis of Color and Particulate Depolarization Ratio Profiles for Aerosols using CALIPSO Level 2 Data. Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS. 2015; 6(2): 1–5p.