Merging aerosol optical depth data from multiple satellite missions

This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in ACP if available. Abstract Agricultural biomass burning (ABB) in Central and East China occurs every year from occurred mainly in An-hui, Henan, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces. A comprehensive set of aerosol optical 5 depth (AOD) data, produced by a merger of AOD product data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Multiangle Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MIRS), is used to study the spatial and temporal distribution of agricultural biomass aerosols in Central and East China combining with ground observations from both AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and China Aerosol Remote Sensing NET-10 work (CARSNET) measurements. We compared merged AOD data with single-sensor single-algorithm AOD data (MODIS Dark Target AOD data, MODIS Deep Blue AOD data, SRAP-MODIS AOD data and MISR AOD data). In this comparison, we found merged AOD products can improve the quality of AOD products from single-sensor single-algorithm data sets by expanding the spatial coverage of the study area and 15 keeping the statistical confidence in AOD parameters. There existed high correlation (0.8479) between the merged AOD data and AERONET measurements. Our merged AOD data make use of synergetic information conveyed in all of the available satellite data. The merged AOD data were used for the analysis of the biomass burning AOD products and the ground observations from China suggest that biomass burning in Central and East China has had great impact on AOD over China. Influenced by this ABB, the highest AOD value in Beijing on 12 June 2007 reached 5.71.