Satellite Earth Observations (EO) represent a powerful tool for environmental applications
such as air quality monitoring and forecasting; new sensors and image processing
methodologies allow for better spatial resolution. Air pollution is an important concern in
the Po valley (northern Italy), one of the main industrialized and populated areas of the
country, and, for this reason, intensely studied. In this work we focus on the applicability
of satellite Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) retrievals in support of air quality monitoring and
assessment in urban environments within the Po valley by using the implementation of
the International MODIS/AIRS Processing Package (IMAPP) Air Quality Applications
software, IDEA-I (Infusing satellite Data into Environmental Applications-International)
over the area. For our specific analyses, IDEA-I was installed at University of Modena
and Reggio Emilia, (Italy) using a large European domain, and a smaller domain over the
Po valley. One year (2012) of MOD04 AOD retrievals from MODIS on board NASA’s
Terra satellite was considered using IDEA-I in a retrospective study. We needed to
develop tools to adapt IDEA-I using MODIS AOD data archived at the NASA Level 1 and
Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS). This was required because IDEA-
I is setup for near-real time use of MODIS Direct Broadcast retrievals by default. The
Level 2 Aerosol Products, collection 5.1 have been used, which returns AOD data at 0.55
µm with a spatial resolution of 10X10 km 2 retrieved from MODIS (MOD04). These
retrieved data were compared with PM 10 mass concentration measurements from the
Italian Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA) network. Correspondence between
AOD and PM 10 data suggests that satellite AOD values could be a good substitute for
monitoring air quality over the Po valley domain. Moreover, the integration of the use of
IDEA-I over the Po valley could give the opportunity to monitor and forecast air pollution
and understand particular polluted situations in the past with a retrospective use of IDEA-
I. Because of the limited domain of analyses, it is useful to refine the spatial resolution of
MODIS AOD maps. This will be accomplished by introducing the use of a recently
developed AOD algorithm, MAIAC (Multi-angle Implementation of Atmospheric
Correction), which provides MODIS AOD maps at a high spatial resolution of 1 km. This
new application will permit us to obtain high resolution AOD maps for the year 2012 over
the Po valley domain
