Development of a new over-water Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer dust detection algorithm

A new over-water dust detection algorithm is developed and applied to the 5 channel Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imager onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration series of polar orbiting satellites. The algorithm has been developed to improve the distinction between dust and meteorological clouds for very optically thick dust storms that would have previously been flagged as cloud under the Clouds from AVHRR Extended cloud mask algorithm. The algorithm has been assessed by making daily comparisons with data from the Aerosol Robotic Network and by making a climatological comparison with METEOSAT and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer data over a portion of the North Atlantic. The new algorithm improves the separation of clouds and airborne dust. Application of the new product to the 5-channel AVHRR historic data sets can provide information on the global dust signal, especially on an interannual time scale.