---
license: mit
language:
- en
pretty_name: Middle East AOD Dataset
tags:
- remote-sensing
- aerosol-optical-depth
- sentinel-2
- aeronet
- earth-observation
- middle-east
- geospatial
task_categories:
- other
size_categories:
- 1K<n<10K
annotations_creators:
- machine-generated
---

# Middle East AOD Dataset

Paired Sentinel-2 L1C satellite imagery and AERONET ground-truth Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 550nm, for 20 monitoring sites across the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean (2015–2025).

Built to train models that estimate AOD directly from satellite imagery. Full pipeline code and downstream feature engineering / modeling live in the companion GitHub repo: **[DualMind-Lab/middle_east_AOD_estimation](https://github.com/DualMind-Lab/middle_east_AOD_estimation)**.

## Dataset Structure

```
├── dataset.csv           # 6,183 labeled rows: AOD_550nm + metadata + image_path
└── images/
    ├── metadata.csv       # same 6,183 rows, paths relative to images/ — used by HF's dataset viewer
    └── {site_name}/
        └── {yyyymmdd_HHMMSS}.tif   # 13-band GeoTIFF, 10m resolution, ~500x500px, UINT16
```

`images/` contains exactly the 6,183 files referenced by `dataset.csv`/`metadata.csv` — no unlabeled/orphan images are included.

Two CSVs exist because they serve different consumers:
- **`dataset.csv`** — original columns/paths, written for the `middle_east_AOD_estimation` pipeline (see below).
- **`images/metadata.csv`** — the [Hugging Face `imagefolder` metadata convention](https://huggingface.co/docs/datasets/en/image_dataset#imagefolder): `file_name` relative to `images/`, plus the label/metadata columns. Without this file, the Hub's dataset viewer auto-infers image-classification labels from the site subfolder names, which is wrong for this dataset — the viewer reads this file instead.

### `dataset.csv` columns

| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| `AERONET_Site` | Ground station name |
| `Date(dd:mm:yyyy)`, `Time(hh:mm:ss)` | Timestamp of the satellite overpass (UTC) |
| `Day_of_Year`, `Day_of_Year(Fraction)` | Seasonal position |
| `AOD_550nm` | **Label.** Mean of ≥2 AERONET measurements within ±30 min of the overpass |
| `Site_Latitude(Degrees)`, `Site_Longitude(Degrees)`, `Site_Elevation(m)` | Station metadata |
| `Solar_Zenith_Angle(Degrees)` | Sun angle at measurement time |
| `image_path` | Relative path to the matching image |

### Image bands (index → band → native resolution)

| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B01 (60m) | B02 (10m) | B03 (10m) | B04 (10m) | B05 (20m) | B06 (20m) | B07 (20m) | B08 (10m) | B8A (20m) | B09 (60m) | B10 (60m) | B11 (20m) | B12 (20m) |

20m and 60m bands are upsampled to 10m via nearest-neighbour interpolation (no invented values); pixel values are UINT16, scaled ×10000 (L1C TOA reflectance).

## Using this with `middle_east_AOD_estimation`

`dataset.csv`'s `image_path` column is written relative to that repo's layout, e.g. `Data_Collection/Dataset/images/AgiaMarina_Xyliatou/20151121_084033.tif`. To use this dataset with the pipeline as-is (no path rewriting), download it into the repo at:

```
middle_east_AOD_estimation/
└── Data_Collection/
    └── Dataset/          ← this dataset's dataset.csv + images/ go here
```

If you're using the dataset standalone, join `image_path` on the `images/` folder here and ignore the `Data_Collection/Dataset/` prefix.

## Data Collection Summary

1. **AERONET measurements** — downloaded globally (Version 3, Level 2.0, cloud-cleared), filtered to 20 Middle East / Eastern Mediterranean sites with usable coverage from 2015 onward (Sentinel-2 era), then AOD at 550nm was interpolated from the 500nm/675nm channels via the Ångström exponent.
2. **Sentinel-2 imagery** — for each AERONET measurement, the matching Sentinel-2 L1C scene within ±30 minutes was downloaded (5×5 km patch centered on the station, all 13 bands) and merged into a single 13-band GeoTIFF.
3. **Matching & aggregation** — each image was matched to its closest AERONET readings (±30 min); readings were averaged into one label per image, and images backed by fewer than 2 measurements were dropped. This follows the ±30 min / ≥2-measurement matchup protocol used in NASA's Dark Target validation and established in the AOD collocation literature (Sayer et al. 2020; Virtanen et al. 2018).

The full pipeline, including intermediate row counts, per-site statistics, and the source scripts, is documented in [`Data_Collection/README.md`](https://github.com/DualMind-Lab/middle_east_AOD_estimation) of the companion repo.

## Dataset Summary

| | |
|---|---|
| Samples | 6,183 |
| Sites | 20 |
| Countries | Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE |
| Date range | 2015-08-20 → 2025-11-30 |
| Label | AOD at 550nm (mean of ≥2 AERONET measurements) |

### Sites

| Site | Country | Samples | Site | Country | Samples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AgiaMarina_Xyliatou | Cyprus | 465 | Migal | Israel | 338 |
| CUT-TEPAK | Cyprus | 831 | SEDE_BOKER | Israel | 383 |
| Nicosia | Cyprus | 493 | Technion_Haifa_IL | Israel | 155 |
| Troodos_CAO | Cyprus | 47 | Weizmann_Institute | Israel | 297 |
| Cairo_EMA_2 | Egypt | 317 | Kuwait_University | Kuwait | 424 |
| El_Farafra | Egypt | 89 | Shagaya_Park | Kuwait | 240 |
| Qena_SVU | Egypt | 109 | University_of_Nizwa | Oman | 99 |
| Eilat | Israel | 155 | KAUST_Campus | Saudi Arabia | 560 |
| IMS-METU-ERDEMLI | Turkey | 515 | DEWA_ResearchCentre | UAE | 69 |
| Masdar_Institute | UAE | 376 | Mezaira | UAE | 221 |

## Uses

**Direct use:** training/evaluating models that estimate AOD at 550nm from Sentinel-2 L1C imagery, and related remote-sensing regression research.

**Out-of-scope use:** this dataset is not validated for real-time or safety-critical air-quality monitoring or decision-making. It should not be assumed to generalize to:
- Regions outside the 20 sites/8 countries listed below — in particular, **no AERONET stations exist for Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Yemen, or Palestine**, so the dataset has no coverage there despite being labeled "Middle East."
- Cloudy or heavily hazy conditions — AERONET Level 2.0 data is cloud-screened, so labels skew toward clear-sky scenes.
- Sites/seasons with little representation — coverage is heavily imbalanced toward Cyprus and Israel sites (e.g. CUT-TEPAK: 831 samples) versus sites like DEWA_ResearchCentre (69 samples); 2015 has only 37 samples since Sentinel-2 L1C only became available mid-year.

## Limitations and Biases

- **Geographic bias**: sample density follows AERONET station placement, not population or pollution patterns — dense urban/industrial areas without a station are unrepresented.
- **Temporal matching uncertainty**: labels are the mean of AERONET readings within ±30 minutes of the satellite overpass, following the NASA Dark Target validation protocol; this introduces some label noise relative to the exact overpass instant (see Sayer et al. 2020 for quantification, σ ≈ 0.019 at 30 min).
- **Sensor drift/calibration**: AERONET instruments are periodically recalibrated across sites and years; no per-instrument calibration metadata is included.

## License

MIT (this repository's code/labels/organization). Underlying source data has its own terms:
- **AERONET** measurements are provided by NASA GSFC under their [data usage policy](https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/data_usage.html) — cite Holben et al. (1998) when publishing results.
- **Sentinel-2** imagery is provided by the Copernicus Programme (ESA) under the [Copernicus open data policy](https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/terms-conditions) — include the attribution "Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [year]."

## Citation

```bibtex
@misc{lazkani2026middleeastaod,
  author = {Lazkani, Baraa and Ibrahim, Modar},
  title = {Middle East AOD Dataset},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/BaraaLazkani/Middle_East_AOD_Dataset}
}
```

Also cite the underlying sources per their policies:
- Holben, B.N., et al. (1998). AERONET — A federated instrument network and data archive for aerosol characterization. *Remote Sensing of Environment*.
- "Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [year], processed by ESA."

## Dataset Card Contact

Baraa Lazkani and Modar Ibrahim — [lazkani.baraa.official@gmail.com](mailto:lazkani.baraa.official@gmail.com) · [github.com/DualMind-Lab/middle_east_AOD_estimation](https://github.com/DualMind-Lab/middle_east_AOD_estimation)