A. Smirnov et al., Relationship between column aerosol optical thickness and in situ ground based dust concentrations over Barbados, GEOPHYS R L, 27(11), 2000, pp. 1643-1646
Aerosol optical depth measurements over Barbados acquired through the AERON
ET network are analyzed. Optical depth shows a pronounced seasonal pattern,
with a maximum observed during summer. The temporal trends of the sunphoto
metry data were similar to those of ground-based dust concentration measure
ments. A simple linear regression relationship has been established between
mean monthly values of aerosol optical depth and dust concentrations (corr
elation coefficient r=0.93), which allows the estimation of optical depth f
or any specific time period when dust concentration measurements are availa
ble. The robustness of the regression was validated with an independent dat
a set.