Retrieval of aerosol properties from Airborne Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP) observations during ACEPOL 2017
Authors: Puthukkudy Anin , Martins J. Vanderlei , Remer Lorraine A. , Xu Xiaoguang , Dubovik Oleg , Litvinov Pavel , McBride Brent , Burton Sharon , Barbosa Henrique M. J. 
Published: October 2020

Abstract. Multi-angle polarimetric (MAP) imaging of Earth scenes can be used for the retrieval of microphysical and optical parameters of aerosols and
clouds. The Airborne Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (AirHARP) is an aircraft MAP instrument with a hyper-angular imaging capability of 60 along-track viewing angles at 670 nm and 20 along-track viewing angles at other wavelengths – 440, 550, and 870 nm – across the full 114∘ (94∘) along-track (cross-track) field of view. Here we report the retrieval of aerosol properties using the Generalized
Retrieval of Aerosols and Surface Properties (GRASP) algorithm applied to AirHARP observations collected during the NASA Aerosol Characterization
from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL) campaign in October–November 2017. The retrieved aerosol properties include spherical fraction (SF), aerosol
column concentration in multiple size distribution modes, and, with sufficient aerosol loading, complex aerosol refractive index. From these primary retrievals, we derive aerosol optical depth (AOD), Angstrom exponent (AE), and single scattering albedo (SSA). AODs retrieved from AirHARP measurements are compared with the High Spectral Resolution LiDAR-2 (HSRL2) AOD measurements at 532 nm and validated with measurements from
collocated Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) stations. A good agreement with HSRL2 (ρ=0.940, |BIAS|=0.062, mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.122) and AERONET AOD (0.010≤MAE≤0.015, 0.002≤|BIAS|≤0.009) measurements is
observed for the collocated points. There was a mismatch between the HSRL2- and AirHARP-retrieved AOD for the pixels close to the forest fire smoke source and to the edges of the plume due to spatial mismatch in the sampling. This resulted in a higher BIAS and MAE for the HSRL2 AOD
comparison. For the case of AERONET AOD comparison, two different approaches are used in the GRASP retrievals, and the simplified aerosol
component-based GRASP/Models kernel which retrieves fewer number of aerosol parameter performed well compared to a more generous GRASP/Five mode
approach in the low aerosol loading cases. Forest fire smoke intercepted during ACEPOL provided a situation with homogenous plume and sufficient
aerosol loading to retrieve the real part of the refractive index (RRI) of 1.55 and the imaginary part of the refractive index (IRI) of 0.024. The
derived SSAs for this case are 0.87, 0.86, 0.84, and 0.81 at wavelengths of 440, 550, 670, and 870 nm, respectively. Finer particles with an average AE of 1.53, a volume median radius of 0.157 µm, and a standard deviation (SD) of 0.55 for fine mode is observed for the same smoke
plume. These results serve as a proxy for the scale and detail of aerosol retrievals that are anticipated from future space mission data, as HARP CubeSat (mission begins 2020) and HARP2 (aboard the NASA PACE mission with launch in 2023) are near duplicates of AirHARP and are expected to
provide the same level of aerosol characterization.