The AER_UAA suite provides aerosol optical properties (AOP), retrieved using the Unified Aerosol Algorithm (UAA). Core variables include measures that describe aerosol loading, size partitioning, and absorption. A companion product in the same family provides the UV Absorbing Aerosol Index (UVAI_UAA). Typical uses include air-quality and climate analyses, aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, trend studies, and model evaluation; users should refer to per-file metadata/flags for quality screening and wavelength availability.
Core geophysical variables in this suite include:
• Aerosol_Optical_Depth_λ - Aerosol optical thickness at λ nm
• NUV_AerosolIndex — Near-UV aerosol index (unitless)
• NUV_AerosolOpticalDepthOverCloud — Near-UV aerosol optical depth over cloud (unitless)
• NUV_CloudOpticalDepth — Near-UV cloud optical depth (unitless)