TOMS AI MATLAB Graphical User Interface

Satellites represent the only data source with truly global coverage on the most important aolian dust source areas and their emission. For this study the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aerosol data were employed to estimate the amount of atmospheric dust. The NASA/GSFC Ozone Processing Team defined the TOMS aerosol index as it is a measure of how much the wavelength dependence of backscattered UV radiation from an atmosphere containing aerosols (Mie scattering, Rayleigh scattering, and absorption) differs from that of a pure molecular atmosphere (pure Rayleigh scattering). 

The TOMS sensors (on board of various sun-synchronous NASA satellites) have the longest available global record (since 1978 November) with appropriate spatial (1×1.25 degree) and temporal (daily) resolution (Herman, J.R. et al. 1997; Torres, O. et al. 1998).

The analyses of daily data-matrices were performed in MathWorks’ MATLAB (R2007b) environment, while the kriging of maps was processed in Golden Software SURFER 8. The fractional data of 1993 and 1996 (caused by satellite failure), the period with calibration problems between 2001 and 2004 (Kiss, P. et al. 2007) and the four-yearly leap days (due to the matrix-operations) were excluded from the long-term mean mapping analyses.
This MATLAB application is aimed at providing information on the frequency and seasonality of dusty episodes in any given region. The Graphical User Interface of the application make it much easier to choose the interesting area.

References:

Herman, J.R. – Bhartia, P.K. – Torres, O. – Hsu, C. – Seftor, C. – Celarier, E. 1997. Global distribution of UV-absorbing aerosols from Nimbus 7 TOMS data. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 102. (D14) pp. 16911–16922.

Kiss, P. – Jánosi, I. – Torres, O. 2007. Early calibration problems detected in TOMS Earth-Probe aerosol signal. Geophysical Research Letters 34. (7) L07803. 5 p.

Torres, O. – Bhartia, P.K. – Herman, J.R. – Ahmad, Z. – Gleason, J. 1998. Derivation of aerosol properties from a satellite measurements of backscattered ultraviolet radiation: Theoretical basis. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 103. (D14) pp. 17099–17110.