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Geospatial Distribution and Projection of Aerosol over Sub-Saharan Africa: Assessment from Remote Sensing and Other Platforms

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Abstract

Saharan Africa has experienced persistent exposure to aerosol from time immemorial, but the intensity has been much more severe in recent years. In this study, aerosol optical depths (AOD) retrievals from ground-based, satellite-based and modelled data set were compared, for the time scale of 1994–2019, 2000–2019, and 1985–2019, respectively, over Saharan Africa. Validation of satellite-based records and model aerosol records were complemented by ground-based records; also, seasonal variations in the atmospheric aerosol were predicted using multiple decadal projections. Results from the multi-model ensemble showed no significant differences between mean monthly aerosol retrieved from different platforms and model-based, where F = 55.114 for ground-based, F = 66.675 for satellite-based, F = 49.638 for the model data set, with Sig = 0.000 at P < 0.05. The study concludes that seasonal variation in Saharan Africa could be accounted for the variation in AOD and the Bodélé depression in Chad which mainly releases nearly 40% of the dust over parts of Saharan Africa especially during the harmattan.

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[Modified from Lee and Noh (2015)]

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center and NASA Langley Research Center for providing satellite data used in this study. Thanks to the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), New York, the USA for providing the initial training on satellite data acquisition and climate data analysis. AA acknowledges the support and fund by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund NRF Nigeria (GrantAward NRF/CC/EHU/00009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

    Godwin Atai, Ayansina Ayanlade & Isaac Ayo Oluwatimilehin

  2. African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Nigeria

    Oluwatoyin Seun Ayanlade

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  1. Godwin Atai
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  2. Ayansina Ayanlade
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AA and GA conceived and designed the study; AA played the leading role in the supervision of the research project, through which the paper was developed, While GA, IAO and OSA contributed to data/literature collection, analysis and interpretation of results. All authors contributed to every aspect of manuscript preparation and write up, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ayansina Ayanlade.

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Atai, G., Ayanlade, A., Oluwatimilehin, I.A. et al. Geospatial Distribution and Projection of Aerosol over Sub-Saharan Africa: Assessment from Remote Sensing and Other Platforms. Aerosol Sci Eng 5, 357–372 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41810-021-00107-4

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