Due to their importance in climate change, air quality, and visibility, atmospheric aerosols have been extensively studied for the last decades. With the recent advance in both aerosol modeling and ground-based/in situ/satellite aerosol observations, it is now possible to improve near and longer term aerosol forecasts through aerosol data assimilation for various scientific applications.

In this talk, recent advances in aerosol data assimilation using both 2-D observations of aerosol optical depth and 3-D aerosol profiling data will be shown. The challenges and limitations of current aerosol data assimilation methods are demonstrated. This talk will include a discussion of the uncertainties in various satellite aerosol products and their potential impacts to aerosol forecasts. New data-assimilation friendly aerosol products developed by Dr. Zhang and colleagues are presented, and their applications to aerosol forecasts and decadal aerosol climatological studies are discussed.