Retrieval of Aerosol Properties Over the Ocean Using Data From the Second‐Generation Directional Polarization Camera (DPC‐2) Onboard the GF‐5(02) Satellite

Abstract

Abstract The second‐generation Directional Polarization Camera (DPC‐2) onboard the GF‐5(02) satellite fills the gap of spaceborne multi‐angle polarimetric measurements after the discontinuation of the POLDER/PARASOL service. DPC‐2/GF‐5(02) has great potential for aerosol retrieval, but to date, no open‐access retrievals using DPC‐2/GF‐5(02) polarimetric data over the ocean has been published. In this work, 1 year of DPC‐2/GF‐5(02) data has been used (from March 2022 to February 2023). Micro‐physical and optical aerosol properties as well as ocean properties have been simultaneously retrieved by the Remote sensing of Trace gases and Aerosol Products (RemoTAP) algorithm from DPC‐2/GF‐5(02) measurements. Validation with ground‐based AErosol RObotic NETwork data shows high accuracy. For Aerosol Optical Depth at 550 nm (AOD 550 ), Ångström Exponent between 440 and 870 nm (AE 440‐870 ), and Single Scattering Albedo at 550 nm (SSA 550 ) retrievals, the Root Mean Square Errors are 0.060, 0.299, and 0.037, respectively. Furthermore, the importance of adding polarization information has been further discussed. The importance of the upgrade from DPC‐1 to DPC‐2 has also been validated by a synthetic experiment, and the comparison demonstrates that more observation angles of DPC‐2 effectively improve the accuracy of retrieval. The comparison of retrieval accuracy between DPC‐2/GF‐5(02), POLDER/PARASOL, and SPEXone/PACE indicates that DPC‐2/GF‐5(02) has comparable retrieval capabilities.