Exercise 5

Exercise 5

About

So far, we have analysed satellite, model and ground-based observation data for one specific event.
Today, we would like to broaden our perspective and analyse more in detail the annual cycle and seasonality of dust and aerosols.

Tasks

1. Brainstorm

  • What data, introduced to you in week 1, can be used for analysing the annual cylce and patterns of dust?

  • What aggregation level is required?

  • Which variables to analyse dust do you know and are available?

2. Download and plot monthly Metop-A/B/C GOME-2 Level 3 Absorbing Aerosol Index data for 2020

  • Download monthly Metop-A/B/C GOME-2 Absorbing Aerosol Index data for year 2020 and plot the monthly values as map featuring a geographical subset for bounding box N:70°, E:36°, S:0°, W:-50°

  • Hint

  • Some questions to reflect on

    • Can you identify some patterns? Describe the patterns you observe for each month.

    • Were some months more affected by desert dust than others in average?

3. Load AERONET observations and CAMS reanalysis (EAC4) time-series for Santa Cruz, Tenerife in 2020 and plot monthly aggregates in one plot

  • Load the time-series of daily aggregated AERONET observations and CAMS reanalysis (EAC4) for Santa Cruz, Tenerife in 2020, resample the values to monthly averages and plot the monthly averaged values together in one plot

  • Hint

  • Some questions to reflect on

    • Interpret the plotting result

    • Do the monthly patterns of AERONET observations and CAMS reanalysis look similar?

    • Do the patterns resemble those of Metop-A/B/C GOME-2 Level 3 Absorbing Aerosol Index data?