Evaluation of MERRA-2 and MODIS C6.1 aerosol products over Indonesia

Atmospheric aerosols play an essential role in atmospheric chemistry and climate. Amidst the issue of climate change, analysis of atmospheric aerosols based on satellite and reanalysis is needed to estimate radiative forcing by aerosols, completing the spatial gap obtained from ground-based observation data. This research aims to evaluate the satellite and reanalysis aerosol products including Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Collection 6.1 (C6.1) over Indonesia in the recent two decades, 2001 - 2020. The long-term performance of MERRA-2 and MODIS C6.1 is evaluated using the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET)-derived AOD. In general, the results show that the correlation of the two data models is good. The average correlation between AOD data obtained from AERONET to MERRA-2 and MODIS C6.1 was 0.8 and 0.5 at all locations, respectively. Meanwhile, the average RMSE values for MERRA-2 and MODIS C6.1 were 0.24 and 0.26 at all locations, respectively. This study successfully assessed the performance of MERRA2 and MODIS C6.1 in Indonesia as an initial study. This initial study verifies that MERRA-2 and MODIS C6.1 can be used to complement surface data in Indonesia.