The OMI Aerosol Optical Depth (Extinction, Near-UV, 388.0 nm) is one of the parameters contained in the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Level-3 UV/VIS Aerosol product (OMAERUVd) product. The parameter is a dimensionless measure of the extinction of light by aerosols due to the combined effect of scattering and absorption. It indicates the level at which particles in the air (aerosols) prevent light (extinction of light) from traveling through the atmosphere.

Aerosols absorb and scatter incoming sunlight, which reduces visibility and increases the optical depth. Aerosols have an effect on human health, weather and the climate. Sources of aerosols include pollution from factories, smoke from fires, dust from dust storms, sea salts, and volcanic ash and smog. Aerosols compromise human health when inhaled by people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses. Aerosols also have an affect on the weather and climate by cooling or warming the earth, helping or preventing clouds from forming.

The OMAERUVd product provides daily gridded global coverage with a temporal resolution of 1 day, imagery resolution of 2 km and sensor/algorithm resolution of 1.0 x 1.0 degrees.

References: OMAERUVd README; DOI: 10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA3003