Evaluation and comparison of VIIRS dark target and deep blue aerosol products over land

The dark target (DT) and deep blue (DB) algorithms have been applied to the VIIRS to construct a long-term climate data recording of atmospheric aerosols. This study provides the first evaluation and comparison of two updated VIIRS aerosol products over global land based on Version 3 Level 1.5 AERONET measurements. Overall, both AOD products agree well with AERONET measurements with correlation coefficients >0.85 and over 75 % of AOD matchups falling within the expected error (EE). The DB product is superior to the DT product with more AOD matchups meeting the EE. Meanwhile, the DB AOD performs better in spatiotemporal accuracy, adaption to different aerosol types, and addresses the effects of large view geometry. DT AOD shows higher accuracy in the summer months in the northern hemisphere and evergreen broadleaf forest areas than DB AOD. The two products exhibit similar spatial distribution patterns of AOD, but higher values are seen in the DT product, especially in Asia and Western North America. The spatial completeness of the DB AOD is higher than DT, especially in brighter surface regions. In contrast, higher temporal completeness of the DT AOD is found in vegetated areas. A case study of the Western United States wildfires in 2020 indicates both products can capture extreme smoke aerosols. In addition, the DB AOD shows a distinct advantage in spatial and temporal continuity and in displaying the regional transport of smoke aerosols. However, the accuracy of the AOD retrieval for both products still needs to be improved in sparse vegetation regions, northern hemisphere summers, fine particle aerosols, and during extreme aerosol events. The overall evaluation of DB SSA and AE products shows that they are unsuitable for quantitative scientific research. This study can provide users a guide on how to select VIIRS aerosol products for different research purposes.