The aerosol measurement and processing system and applications to African studies

The Aerosol Measurement and Processing System (AMAPS) simplifies access to large satellite and ground-based aerosol data sets by allowing computationally expensive and I/O intensive operations to be performed by the systems that host the data sources and then returning the condensed results in a simple common format. This significantly reduces much of the overhead associated with data retrieval and storage, particularly for large and intrinsically complex data sets. AMAPS further facilitates data analysis by providing generalized algorithms that are consistently applied to different data sources in a manner transparent to the user. For example, common geolocation and collocation algorithms are available for multiple instruments, along with interpolation of geophysical retrievals, such as aerosol optical thickness (AOT), to common wavelengths. AMAPS also includes a common set of tools for data reduction, analysis, and plotting. In this paper, we describe the AMAPS system and demonstrate the application of the tool for aerosol studies tailored to the African continent and surrounding areas.