Sensitivity and information content of aerosol retrievals from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer:...

The sensitivity of aerosol optical depths tau1 and tau2 derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) channels 1 and 2, centered at lambda1 = 0.63 and lambda2 = 0.83 microm, respectively, and of an effective Angstrom exponent alpha, derived therefrom as alpha = -ln(tau1/tau2)/ln(lambda1/lambda2), to calibration uncertainties, radiometric noise, and digitization is estimated. Analyses are made both empirically (by introduction of perturbations into the measured radiances and estimation of the respective partial derivatives) and theoretically (by use of a decoupled form of the single-scattering approximation of the radiative transfer equation). The two results are in close agreement. The errors, deltataui and deltaalphai, are parameterized empirically as functions of taui, radiometric errors, and Sun and view geometry. In particular, the alpha errors change in approximately inverse proportion to tau and are comparable with, or even exceed, typical alpha signals over oceans when tau < 0.25. Their detrimental effect on the information content of the AVHRR-derived size parameter gradually weakens as tau increases.