i Detection of Smoke and Dust Aerosols Using Multi-sensor Satellite ...

quality, and daily life, detection of smoke and dust aerosols is a very meaningful task. In
present, various satellite remote sensors were launched in the sky for diversities of
applications. However, not all sensors are suitable for monitoring smoke and dust
aerosols. MODIS is an instrument suitable for this task because of its good spectral,
spatial, and temporal resolutions: 1) it observes the Earth using 20 Reflective Solar Bands
(RSBs) and 16 Thermal Emissive Bands (TEBs) with wavelength range 0.4 ~ 14.2 μm; 2)
the spatial resolution is up to 1 km for most bands, which is high enough to monitor
smoke from wildfires and dust storm events; 3) four measurements can be obtained for
the same location every day except small gaps in the equatorial areas. Additionally, the
MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) gives both financial and technical
supports to study the correlation between measurements/products and MODIS sensor
characterization. It is a great chance to evaluate the uncertainties from instrument itself.
Consequently, MODIS is picked up as the major sensor for smoke and dust detection in
this dissertation.
Currently, several approaches have been developed for smoke and dust detections
using MODIS measurements. However, most of them detect smoke/dust aerosols only
with measurements of either RSBs or TEBs. And in most of approaches, the cloud mask
product (Ackerman et al., 2002) is used directly, which may misclassify smoke and dust
as cloud in some conditions, hence leading to low quality detection results. The detail
review of each approach is given in the chapter two. Therefore, I developed an approach
based on the multi-spectral technique for detecting smoke and dust aerosols combining
both MODIS RSB and TEB measurements.
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