Toward the Kashi region in northwest of China, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals from Collection 6 (C6) MYD, Collection 6.1 (C6.1) MOD, and C6.1 MYD during 2016–2017 are compared with ground‐based measurements from the Sun‐sky Radiometer Network (SONET), and the first comprehensive evaluation of the Dark Target (DT) and Deep Blue (DB) retrievals with a 10‐km spatial resolution in the latest C6.1 MYD AOD data set during 2016–2018 is presented. In general, C6.1 MYD AOD products (both of DT and DB algorithm) are the most effective in Kashi of the three collections, and there is an overall underestimation of DB AOD, while DT AOD that slightly outperformed DB AOD in Kashi is overestimated on the whole. As to the factors that influence the accuracy of MODIS AOD, for DB algorithm, the overestimations of the surface reflectance and Single Scattering Albedo that DB aerosol model assumed can cause underestimation of DB AOD retrievals over Kashi, while the ones for DT algorithm are opposite. Besides, the coarse dust particles with lower veracity are predominant in Kashi region, which illustrated that the errors of particle size assumption in C6.1 MYD DT and DB algorithms will make large inversion error of MODIS AOD. Moreover, whatever DB or DT algorithm, the accuracy of AOD is diminished as the aerosol loading increases. The more realistic aerosol models and surface characterizations are necessary during the process of generating the MODIS aerosol retrievals in Kashi region.

In the west of China, a rarely seen black storm, with a high intensity of dust aerosols and a large area of influence, occurred from April 26–29, 2015, for the first time, after more than 30 years. Based on the regional climate model (RegCM version 4.6), combined with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite retrieval, meteorological, and environmental data, this work presents the pollution situation, weather background, and backward trajectory during the black storm process. In addition, we analyzed the temporal–spatial distribution of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the impacts of dust aerosols on solar radiation and near-surface temperature under this extreme weather condition. We discovered that this black storm process was caused by the surface cold high pressure and frontal transit under the background of the upper-air circulation of “two troughs and two ridges.” The pollutants primarily from Xinjiang and the Central Asia region, along with the airflow, entered northern Xinjiang almost simultaneously with the southwest airflow, piled up along the Tianshan Mountains, and then crossed the mountains into southern Xinjiang. In addition, the areas with high AOD were mostly in the desert regions and basins, whereas the low-value areas were mountainous areas with relatively high altitudes due to the effect of geographical and climatic conditions. The AOD from RegCM 4.6 was generally lower, unlike the MODIS AOD. Moreover, the dust aerosols from this black storm caused a significant decline in net short-wave radiation (NSR) both at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and surface. The cooling effect was more significant in the region with high AOD. For the areas where the AOD was higher than 0.7, the net short-wave radiative forcing of dust aerosols (ADRF) at the surface was above −70 W•m⁻²; on the other hand, the cooling effect at the TOA was not as significant as that at the surface, with the ADRF_TOA being only about a quarter of the ADRF_SUR. The ADRF_SUR could reduce the near-surface temperature, and the region with a large temperature drop corresponded to the high-value areas of ADRF_SUR/AOD. During this black storm, the near-surface temperature response to dust aerosols reached 0.40°C–2.9°C with a significant temperature drop because of cold air.

Xinjiang, a region of China with arid and semi-arid areas, has abundant solar incidence with 166.5×104 km² and diverse underlying surface. The meager number of surface radiation observatories cannot meet the need for efficient exploration of solar energy. In this study we classified Xinjiang into three regions: southern Xinjiang, northern Xinjiang and Tu-Ha region and applied satellite data to provide the surface solar radiation's temporal distribution for 10 typical cities. The study is focused on seasonal, annual and variations of all sky downward shortwave radiation flux at surface based on 24-year satellite dataset GEWEX-SRB from the WCRP/GEWEX (World Climate Research Program/Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) from 1984 to 2007. The results are as follows. In general, the monthly average solar radiation flux for the cities in the Tu-Ha region was the largest followed by the south Xinjiang and northern Xinjiang. The solar radiation in the most northern cities were less than 150.0 W/m² in winter, the minimum is 138.7 W/m², while the other cities were greater than 150.0 W/m². The maximum of monthly solar flux for the Tu-Ha region, southern and northern Xinjiang was 400.0 W/m².