Spatial variation of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) due to Land Surface Temperature (LST) / Noorlisa Ayuzee Marhalim

A haze was formed by airborne particles like Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and molecules scattering which absorb sunlight, comprising pollutants and tiny particulate pollution such as PM2.5 and PM10. Land Surface Temperature (LST) may influence the AOD of the area and possibly be detected with remote sensing and analysed with GIS technique. Thus, the study aims to determine the spatial variation of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) due to Land Surface Temperature (LST) during the 2019 haze episode in Peninsular Malaysia using satellite remote sensing and spatial regression model. The methods involve retrieving AOD values from the Aerosol Index (AI) of Sentinel 5P satellite images, computing LST using MODIS Terra satellite images, and determining the relationships between LST and AOD using the Multi-Scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) Model. Findings based on Ordinary Least Square (OLS) with r-squared = 0.1 and 0.02 have shown no relationships between LST and AOD. However, the results of MGWR prove the significant effects of AOD due to LST in the local area but in weak relationships (r-squared = 0.31 and 0.33). The weak relationships could be due to daytime satellite image acquisition and the AOD is highly influenced by LST at night. Overall, this study shows the potential use of remote sensing satellites and spatial regression models to detect the effect of LST on the spread of haze. This approach can be utilised by the Department of Environmental (DoE), and the general public to take action and alert.