Estimating PM_2.5 Mass Concentration from MODIS AOD Products in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Air pollution, especially PM_2.5 mass concentration is one of big problems in Ho Chi Minh City in recent years. This study focuses on deriving a linear regression model based on a relationship between ground-level PM_2.5 mass concentration measurements and satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) values. The PM_2.5 measurements were collected from 25 ground stations in the inner city while atmospheric AOD values were extracted from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) green and blue band images. The observed period was from January 1, 2020 to May 31, 2020. As a result, the multivariable linear regression model was built from the sub-dataset of observations from the 20 ground stations. Correlation between PM_2.5 mass concentration measurements and MODIS blue band and green band AOD values is relative high, that of 0.85, and RMSE of 6.439 (μg/m³). The remain subdataset of observations from the 5 ground stations were used to validate the model, and it indicated a correlation coefficient of 0.88 and a RMSE of 5.567 (μg/m³). The result model is expected to be applied for deploying air quality monitoring systems derived from satellite observations and understanding geospatial distribution of PM_2.5 mass concentration in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.