Aerosol and ocean optical properties over water (PACE SPEXone)

This suite provides aerosol optical/microphysical properties retrieved over the oceans, along with coupled surface parameters used in the retrieval. The suite includes spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD), single-scattering albedo (SSA), complex refractive index (real/imaginary), size distribution metrics (e.g., fine/coarse effective radii and fine-mode fraction), and aerosol shape/fraction spherical; it also reports ocean surface roughness (glint/wind parameterization) and “ocean body” properties that define the water-leaving signal for consistency with the coupled atmosphere–ocean inversion. Use AER_RTAPOCEAN for aerosol-climate and air-quality studies, as aerosol context for ocean-color atmospheric correction, and for model evaluation and data assimilation; pair it with OCI/HARP2 products for cross-sensor analyses. Core geophysical variables in this suite include: - alh – Aerosol layer height (km) - aot – Aerosol optical thickness (dimensionless) - aot550 – Aerosol optical thickness at 550 nm (dimensionless) - angstrom_440_670 – Ångström exponent, 440–670 nm (dimensionless) - angstrom_440_870 – Ångström exponent, 440–870 nm (dimensionless) - angstrom_490_670 – Ångström exponent, 490–670 nm (dimensionless) - chla – Chlorophyll-a concentration (mg m⁻³) - fmf – Aerosol fine mode fraction (dimensionless) - fvf – Aerosol fine mode volume fraction (dimensionless) - lidar_bsca_total – Aerosol lidar backscatter coefficient (km⁻¹ sr⁻¹) - lidar_depol_ratio – Aerosol lidar depolarization ratio (dimensionless) - lidar_ratio – Aerosol lidar extinction-to-backscatter ratio (sr) - mi – Aerosol refractive index, imaginary part (dimensionless) - mr – Aerosol refractive index, real part (dimensionless) - reff_coarse – Aerosol effective radius, coarse mode (µm) - reff_fine – Aerosol effective radius, fine mode (µm) - sph – Aerosol spherical fraction (dimensionless) - ssa – Aerosol single scattering albedo (dimensionless) - vd – Aerosol volume density (µm³ µm⁻²) - veff_coarse – Aerosol effective variance, coarse mode (dimensionless) - veff_fine – Aerosol effective variance, fine mode (dimensionless) - waterfrac_inland – Water fraction over inland pixels (dimensionless, 0–1) - wind_speed – Wind speed (m s⁻¹)