A Hierarchical Bayesian Approach for Aerosol Retrieval Using MISR Data

Yueqing Wang, Xin Jiang, Bin Yu and Ming Jiang

Journal of the American Statistical Association, 2013, vol. 108, issue 502, 483-493

Abstract: Atmospheric aerosols can cause serious damage to human health and reduce life expectancy. Using the radiances observed by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), the current MISR operational algorithm retrieves aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 17.6 km resolution. A systematic study of aerosols and their impact on public health, especially in highly populated urban areas, requires finer-resolution estimates of AOD's spatial distribution. We embed MISR's operational weighted least squares criterion and its forward calculations for AOD retrievals in a likelihood framework and further expand into a hierarchical Bayesian model to adapt to finer spatial resolution of 4.4 km. To take advantage of AOD's spatial smoothness, our method borrows strength from data at neighboring areas by postulating a Gaussian Markov random field prior for AOD. Our model considers AOD and aerosol mixing vectors as continuous variables, whose inference is carried out using Metropolis-within-Gibbs sampling methods. Retrieval uncertainties are quantified by posterior variabilities. We also develop a parallel Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm to improve computational efficiency. We assess our retrieval performance using ground-based measurements from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and satellite images from Google Earth. Based on case studies in the greater Beijing area, China, we show that 4.4 km resolution can improve both the accuracy and coverage of remotely sensed aerosol retrievals, as well as our understanding of the spatial and seasonal behaviors of aerosols. This is particularly important during high-AOD events, which often indicate severe air pollution.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01621459.2013.796834 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jnlasa:v:108:y:2013:i:502:p:483-493

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/UASA20

DOI: 10.1080/01621459.2013.796834

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the American Statistical Association is currently edited by Xuming He, Jun Liu, Joseph Ibrahim and Alyson Wilson

More articles in Journal of the American Statistical Association from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().