The distribution of aerosol optical depth retrieved by TM imagery over Beijing urban area, China

Particulate matter (PM) air-quality information is usually derived from ground based instruments. These measurements, while valuable, are not well suited to provide air-quality information over large spatial scales. In this paper, the extended dense dark vegetation algorithm is selected to retrieval the aerosol optical thickness using 6S radioactive transfer model based on Landsat TM data over the Beijing city in non-heating season. The results shows that the distribution of trend expansion from the maps, there is two high-value areas of aerosol optical thickness which are located in Haidian and Fengtai district, Xicheng district will also appear high-value areas in some cases. The urban scale PM₁₀ distribution matches the AOD distribution retrieved by TM imagery quite well.