Determination of fine particulate matter from MERIS and SeaWiFS aerosol data

1 ABSTRACT Over land, the Dense Dark Vegetation is used to derive in a first stage the aerosol path radiance and in a second stage to propose an aerosol product which consists of the aerosol optical thickness at 443 nm. Air quality monitoring of the particles is based on measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 which are respectively the density of particles of diameter lesser than 10 μm, lesser than 2.5 μm, at the surface. The satellite aerosol product can be converted into PM10 and PM2.5, based on different assumptions: particle density and vertical distribution mainly. This first attempt to monitor PM from space can be validated with in-situ data. Another approach will simply consist in using the in-situ PM measurements to calibrate the satellite imagery. Within the frame of a European project called EXPER-PF, we generated, over an area centred on Lille (50’36° N, 3’08 E, North of France), a data base with the SeaWiFS archive, and the PM data collected by the regional air quality network. The above technique will be applied and validate using this data base. MERIS data will be integrated in 2004. We show here the potential improvements on the aerosol product we can expect from MERIS