Aerosol spatial distribution in populated mountain areas is very heterogeneous and often characterized by scales of variability of several kilometers. Satellites provide an effective tool to map aerosols on an operational basis, but most of the aerosol products intended for continental/global applications have a coarse spatial resolution (10-18 km). The Multiangle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) is a recently developed algorithm for the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), which provides Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at a high resolution of 1 km. We analyze the quality and potential of MAIAC AOD in the Alpine region and we derive high resolution AOD maps for the years 2008 and 2009. Cloudiness and snow in mountain regions occasionally lead to an overestimation of AOD due to unresolved cloud and snow pixel contamination. Therefore, we developed a filter that almost preserves the spatial resolution of the product to ensure the good accuracy of MAIAC AOD for air-quality and climatological applications. The AOD is validated with AERONET measurements in the region and compared to the standard MODIS AOD product (MOD04). Similar accuracies are found for both products (RMSE = 0.05) but with MAIAC providing about 50% more observations at the examined locations, because of its higher spatial resolution and less restrictive filtering. Comparison with ground measurements of aerosol mass (PM10) shows that MAIAC AOD can be used to detect the fine scales of aerosol variability (2-3 km) in the mountains. Finally, AOD maps for the Alpine region demonstrate that topography is correlated with the average aerosol spatial distribution. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.

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