Air Quality Remote Sensing Program
GOES Aerosol Optical Depth

Satellite measured aerosol optical depth (AOD) has been shown to be a good proxy for pollution monitoring especially when long-range transport is involved. NESDIS / STAR has been providing to its users GOES AOD product in near real time since 2003. This product is available at 30-minute interval and 4 km X 4 km spatial resolution during the sunlit portion of the day. The EPA and NWS have been using the product for monitoring and forecasting applications.

Figure shows mean bias between satellite measured aerosol optical depth
and NWS experimental forecast during July 15 - August 15, 2004.