Remote sensing assessment of absorbing aerosol over Peninsular Malaysia from OMI onboard Aura satellite

The observation of aerosol index derived from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the Dutch-Finnish Aura satellite with spatial resolution 1° x 1° have been analyzed over Peninsular Malaysia for 2013-2015, from June to September, respectively. The results show significant spatial and temporal variabilities in aerosol index with higher values during June 2013 and September 2015. On the other hand, the aerosol index does not show significant differences between the Peninsular Malaysia for the remaining study duration. The high positive aerosol index values over Southern Peninsular Malaysia clearly reveal the ultraviolet absorbing nature of smoke particles affecting the area during Indonesia forest fire, associated with the Southwest monsoon season. The spatial distribution of aerosol index has been analyzed using monthly OMI/Aura data obtained from the NASA-operated Giovanni. The result shows that the satellite measurements can measure and observe the increase of the aerosol index over different regions. (paper)