aerosol reflectance is obtained from TOA reflectance accounting for Rayleigh path .... geometry, Rayleigh scattering, surface reflectance for the different ...
Retrieval of aerosol optical thickness over land surfaces from top-of-atmosphere radiance W. von Hoyningen-Huene, M. Freitag, and J. B. Burrows Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Received 18 December 2001; revised 18 July 2002; accepted 2 January 2003; published 2 May 2003.
[1] Aerosol remote sensing requires techniques enabling the determination of aerosol
optical thickness (AOT) over land surfaces, because the most important sources (continental aerosols, anthropogenic aerosols, biomass burning, desert dust, volcano eruptions and others) are on continents. Here a retrieval method for the AOT over land surfaces from top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance using nadir looking instruments of the ocean color type (like Ocean Color and Temperature Sensor (OCTS), Sea viewing Wide Field Sensor (SeaWiFS), Moderate resolution Imaging Sensor (MODIS) or Medium Resolution Imaging Sensor (MERIS)) is presented. It is scheduled as an off-line procedure for the ENVISAT radiometers SCIAMACHY and MERIS. The method is based on lookup tables (LUT) between the AOT and the aerosol reflectance for wavelength