Asian dust categorization by MODIS dust indices

Asian dust storm monitoring is essential for daily meteorological forecasting. Heavy Asian dusts are occasionally carried by strong winds to Korea, Japan, even to North America and cause respiratory disease, transportation disturbances, and other disruptions of social and economical activities. Remote sensing technique is useful for detecting and monitoring such heavy Asian dusts. In our previous study, a methodology for retrieving an Asian dust cluster from the MODIS three indices was developed. At that time, three stages of Asian dust behavior were confirmed as 1) initial stage, 2) transported stage, and 3) diffusion stage. In this study, to understand Gobi-desert origin dust behavior from MODIS data, we developed a new dust index for more appropriate dust detection than conventional way of Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) and Normalized Dust Difference Index (NDDI). Then, a new methodology for Asian dust categorization using MODIS was developed. This dust categorization was demonstrated with MODIS data of 2010 and 2011 dust storms.