Article Sidebar
Published:
Jan 22, 2014Keywords:
Article Details
Copyright of the journal's content belongs to the Owner-association: Nigeria Meteorological Society; NmetS
Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Condition of use: This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit the authors and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
Monitoring Spatio-Temporal Variability of Aerosol Over East Africa
Abstract
This study sought to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of aerosols over East Africa based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensor. A Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model was used for trajectory analysis in order to reconstruct the origins of air masses and understand the Spatio-temporal variability of aerosol concentrations. MODIS aerosol data (2001 to 2012) revealed decreasing aerosol loading over East Africa. An assessment of seasonal variability in AOD revealed maximum AOD values during the December –January –February (DJF) and June –July –August (JJA) season. Back trajectory analyses indicated that aerosols reaching East Africa were transported from either Arabian and Indian sub continent or western parts of the Indian Ocean. Therefore, long term and more comprehensive satellite AOD retrievals are necessary in order to achieve a better understanding of spatial and temporal variations in aerosols over East Africa.
Key Words: Aerosol Optical Depth, MODIS, East Africa
