This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9640 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conference Committee listing.

We have developed a new aerosol retrieval technique based on combing high-resolution A band spectra with lidar profiles. Our goal is the development of a technique to retrieve aerosol absorption, one of the critical parameters affecting the global radiation budget and one which is currently poorly constrained by satellite measurements. Our approach relies on two key factors: 1) the use of high spectral resolution (17,000:1) measurements which resolve the Aband line structure, and 2) the use of co-located lidar profile measurements to constrain the vertical distribution of scatterers in the forward model. The algorithm has been developed to be applied to observations from the CALIPSO and OCO-2 satellites, flying in formation as part of the A-train constellation. We describe the approach and present simulated retrievals to illustrate performance potential.

The EarthCARE, Earth Clouds, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer, is a joint European-Japanese mission (ESA/JAXA/NICT) which has been defined with the objective of improving the understanding of cloud-aerosol-radiation interactions so as to include them correctly and reliably in climate and numerical weather prediction models. The EarthCARE Mission has been approved for implementation as ESA's third Earth Explorer Core Mission. It is currently in its Detailed Design Phase (phase C/D) with a launch scheduled for 2018 [1]. This paper presents the EarthCARE programmatic status, the current instrument design and mission performance. The mission end-to-end simulator (E3SIM) and data processing up to level 2 (geophysical products) and related science activities will be discussed. The E3SIM supports end-to-end simulations from a scene definition to synergistic level 2 products. Level 2 retrieval algorithms can be tested in the full chain (provision of input data, algorithm performance tests by comparison of outputs with known inputs) by using a single framework with well-defined interfaces helping to harmonise algorithm developments.

Extreme weather such as storms, hurricanes and typhoons, also called ‘high impact weather’, is a high priority area of research for the atmospheric dynamics and meteorological science communities. 94 GHz Doppler wind radar satellite mission concepts have been elaborated, which use cloud and precipitation droplets/particles as tracers to measure 3-D wind fields. The so-called polarisation-diversity pulse-pair (PDPP) technique enables to derive line-of-sight wind speed with good accuracy (< 2-3 m/s) and large unambiguous dynamic range (e.g. 75 m/s). Two distinct system concepts have been elaborated: (1) a conically scanning radar concept with large coverage (> 800 km) and ∼50 km along-track sampling, and; (2) a stereo viewing concept with high sampling resolution (< 4 km) within an inclined cut through the atmosphere. The former concept is adequate for studying large-scale severe/extreme weather systems, whereas the latter would be more suitable for understanding of small-scale convective phenomena. For demonstrating the potential of the FDPP technique for deriving accurate Doppler observations, ground-based and airborne Doppler radar campaigns are in preparation. The Galileo 94 GHz radar, upgraded recently to include a FDPP capability, at Chilbolton in the UK, will be used for an extended ground-based campaign (6 months). For the airborne campaign, the dual-frequency (9.4 + 94 GHz) NAWX radar on board a Convair-580 aircraft of the National Science Council of Canada will be upgraded and flown. This paper describes the observation requirements, preliminary satellite mission concepts, associated wind retrieval aspects and the planned demonstration campaigns.

The Atmosphere-surface Radiation Automatic Instrument (ASRAI) is a newly developed hyper-spectral apparatus by Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIOFM, CAS), measuring total spectral irradiance, diffuse spectral irradiance of atmosphere and reflected radiance of the land surface for the purpose of in-situ calibration. The instrument applies VIS-SWIR spectrum (0.4~1.0 μm) with an averaged spectral resolution of 0.004 μm. The goal of this paper is to describe a method of deriving both aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol modes from irradiance measurements under free cloudy conditions. The total columnar amounts of water vapor and oxygen are first inferred from solar transmitted irradiance at strong absorption wavelength. The AOD together with total columnar amounts of ozone and nitrogen dioxide are determined by a nonlinear least distance fitting method. Moreover, it is able to infer aerosol modes from the spectral dependency of AOD because different aerosol modes have their inherent spectral extinction characteristics. With assumption that the real aerosol is an idea of “external mixing” of four basic components, dust-like, water-soluble, oceanic and soot, the percentage of volume concentration of each component can be retrieved. A spectrum matching technology based on Euclidean-distance method is adopted to find the most approximate combination of components. The volume concentration ratios of four basic components are in accordance with our prior knowledge of regional aerosol climatology. Another advantage is that the retrievals would facilitate the TOA simulation when applying 6S model for satellite calibration.

The focus of this paper is to introduce a novel strategy for comparison of unfiltered radiances in remote sensing devised for CERES scanners. The strategy is referred to as “matched sites targeting”, in which CERES instruments scan at nadir along their respective collocated ground-tracks. This strategy is enabled by similarities in the Suomi-NPP (FM5) and Aqua (FM3) satellite orbits, and a special scan profile available for the CERES scanners. Comparison of collected data in this strategy is done at a footprint level for a more stringent test of the consistency between the two instruments (FM5 and FM3) for specific scene types, as averages of 330 collocated nadir samples are compared. A comparison of comprehensive “all-sky” measurements is also included as a reference. Results of the unfiltered radiance comparison are based on ES8 or ERBE-like data product using Edition-1 for FM5, and Edition-4 for FM3; cloud coverage is verified using MODIS data available in a SSF product.

The TARANIS mission aims at studying upper atmosphere coupling with a scientific nadir-pointing microsatellite - CNES Myriade family – at a low-altitude orbit (700 km). The main objectives are to measure the occurrence of Transient Luminous Event (TLE), impulsive energetic optical phenomena generated by storms according to recently discovered process, and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash (TGF), their emissions and trigger factors. TARANIS instruments are currently in manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing phase. The MicroCameras and Photometers instruments (MCP) are in charge of the remote sensing of the sprites and the lightning in optical wavelengths. MicroCameras instrument [MCP-MC] is an imager in the visible and Photometers instrument [MCP-PH] is a radiometer with four bands from UV to NIR, able to detect TLEs on-board and to trigger the whole payload. The satellite will provide a complete survey of the atmosphere in low resolution together with a high resolution data of sites of interest automatically detected on board. For MC and PH instruments, CEA defined scientific needs and is in charge of processing data and providing scientific results. CNES described the technical requirements of these two instruments and will run in-flight commissioning. Design, manufacturing and testing is under responsibility of Sodern for MicroCameras and Bertin Technologies for Photometers. This article shortly describes physical characteristics of TLEs and presents the final design of these instruments and first measured performances.

There are several instruments and methods to retrieve the atmospheric Mixing Layer Height (MLH). However, none of these instruments or methods can measure the development of the MLH under all atmospheric conditions. For example, aerosol signatures measured by backscatter lidars can be used to determine the MLH but this approach is reasonable only when the atmosphere is well-mixed. Microwave Radiometer (MWR) derived profiles have low vertical resolution and cannot resolve fine structures in the boundary layer, especially, at higher altitudes. Here we propose a method which combines data from a ground-based lidar and a MWR, in simulated as well as real measurements scenarios, to overcome these limitations. The method works by fitting an erf-like transition model function to the section of range-corrected lidar backscatter signal. The section of the lidar backscatter signal for fitting the model function is obtained by incorporating the MWR estimates of MLH along with their uncertainties. The fitting is achieved by using an extended Kalman filter (EKF). The proposed approach, by exploiting the synergy between the two instruments, enables to detect MLH with original vertical and temporal resolutions. Test cases combining simulated data for a co-located lidar-ceilometer and a MWR are presented. The simulated data is obtained from the Dutch Atmospheric Large Eddy Simulation (DALES) model for boundary layer studies. Doppler wind lidar along with radiosondes (whenever available) data is used to assess the quality of the synergetic MLH estimates. Data from the HD(CP)² Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE) campaign at Jülich, Germany is used to test the proposed method.

This study which was conducted as a Master's thesis, is a radar system working at X band. In this system, a 0.8 Watts continuous electromagnetic wave which is modulated with a frequency ramp of 30 MHz bandwidth is generated and radiated through transmit antenna. The scattered signal from the hydrometeors is multiplied with the transmitted one and the beat signal is obtained. By this deramping process the range information of the target is converted into frequency domain. Data is processed in Matlab after passing through analog to digital converters. The range and velocity information is obtained with signal processing algorithms in fast and slow time. Some special techniques such as clipping, windowing, coherent data integration, and slow time signal processing are performed to the captured beat signal. Verification of the system is performed by buildings and cars whose range and velocities are known. The range of cloud and the speed of wind are estimated by processing the return signal in fast and slow time.

The nowadays environmental issues motivated us to develop a mobile LiDAR system for two applications: 1°/ the prevention against forest fires in the hilly and inaccessible continuous mountainous forests in north Algeria, where the risk factor of a forest fire is high in summer and 2°/ the study of the atmosphere by monitoring pollutant species and sand aerosols emanating either from cement plants in the Algiers agglomeration and the Sahara. The system mobility enables measurements in different locations. For the first application, we use an eye safe laser wavelength at λ=1.57 μm and an avalanche photodiode (APD) as a detector. For the second application, we use an Nd:YAG laser followed by a second harmonic generator that emits at λ=532 nm and a photomultiplier (PMT) as a detector. The LiDAR is an active technique that often deals with weak return signals. The latter come with an intensity proportional to 1⁄R², where R is the range from the target to the detector. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), as an effective detection criterion, needs to be optimized towards better performance. That is, when the SNR is low, the detected signal is increased and vice versa. In the case of forest fires detection, it may happen that strong signals from nearest objects lead the detector to a saturation status. We suggest a method to handle this issue that is base on the control of the detector gain by driving its applied voltage.

Cloud parameters such as the Cloud Top Height (CTH), Cloud Top Temperature (CTT), emissivity, particle size and optical depth have always been matter of interest for the atmospheric community. Particularly the CTH provides information leading to better understand the cloud radiative effects. Although there are many meteorological satellites providing the CTH, there are other sensors, not devoted to this purpose, that give some information from which this crucial parameter can be estimated. In this contribution we will describe three different methodologies to retrieve the CTH. The first technique is based on stereo-vision algorithms and requires two different views of the same scene and does not need of extra atmospheric information. In the second one, brightness temperatures in two IR spectral bands are converted to real cloud temperature by means of the proposed algorithms. From the CTT, the CTH is estimated using temperature vertical profiles (measured or modeled). The third technique retrieves the CTH from the output parameters of post event simulations performed by a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model that in this work will be the mesoscale model WRF (Weather Research Forecast). This article presents a preliminary work, in which the heights retrieved by the three methodologies applied to the geostationary satellite Meteosat 10 are compared with the heights given by MODIS sensor installed on the polar satellite AQUA. This promising results show that valuable information about CTH can be retrieved from Meteosat which provide high frequency and large scale data useful for weather and climate research.

Aerosol indirect effects are poorly understand and constitute a highly uncertain anthropogenic forcing of climate change. The interaction of aerosols with clouds together with entrainment and turbulent mixing processes modulate cloud microphysics and radiative effects. In the current study we present preliminary results to diagnose indirect aerosol effects from the synergy of geostationary satellite observations, surface observations and MACC aerosol analysis. We examine if the sub-adiabatic factor - representative for entrainment - can be obtained from the combination of passive-satellite observations with ground-based cloud base height from a ceilometer network. Therefore the uncertainty of the sub-adiabatic factor due to its required input parameters, the cloud geometrical thickness and liquid water path, is explored. We use a two year dataset from SEVIRI and compare it to the LACROS supersite at Leipzig, Germany. We find that the comparison of satellite-retrieved cloud top heights shows a RMSD of 1100 m and the liquid water path of 75 gm^-2, which are too large to provide a meaningful estimate of the instantaneous sub-adiabtic factor. Linking the cloud microphysical properties from passive satellites with aerosol properties obtained from MACC, we investigate the Twomey hypothesis, namely that smaller droplets and a higher cloud droplet number concentration result from higher aerosol load for a given liquid water path (positive change). A positive relative change is obtained for aerosol optical depth and the sulphate mass integrated from the surface to the cloud top. In contrast, a negative relative change is however found for sea salt.

The paper presents results of numerical statistical simulations of experiments of ground-based sensing of cloud layers by terahertz linearly polarized radiation for certain wavelengths from the atmospheric transparency windows. Summarized results of many years’ field measurements of liquid droplet size distributions in temperate latitudes of the Earth and the distributions obtained by aircraft experiments off Great Britain’s coast are used in the scattering layer models. The models of the scattering medium take into account the vertical stratification of water vapor concentration in the atmosphere and the differences in cloud layer microstructure at the top and the base.

By using not only TRMM (the tropical rainfall measuring mission) precipitation radar (TRMM/PR) and microwave imager data, but also NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data, the paper compares and analyzes the two rainstorms caused by the southwest vortex (SWV) and eastward Tibetan Plateau vortex (TPV) in Southwest China, respectively. It shows that the heavy rainfall systems of both two vortex rainstorms are consist of a main rain band and several scattered precipitation clouds, with non-uniform distributed precipitation intensity. The horizontal scale of the main rain band and the intensive precipitation clouds of TPV rainstorm on 21st July, 2008 are larger than those of SWV on 17th July, 2007. The common feature of the two mesoscale precipitation systems detected by precipitation radar (PR) is that most of precipitation are stratiform precipitation which has large scale but weak intensity caused by the two kinds of precipitation. However, the convective precipitation contributes more to the total precipitation, with larger rain rate than the stratiform precipitation. The rainfall intensity spectrum of the convective precipitation is wider than that of the stratiform precipitation, which ranges from 1 to 50 mm/h. It also indicates that the height of the rain top increases along with the surface precipitation intensity in the two rainstorms. The highest height of the rain top reaches 16km. The SWV rainstorm is more intensive than TPV rainstorm, and the microwave brightness temperature varies inversely as the height of the rain top. The release of the precipitation latent heat, the increase of the raindrops and the change of the ice particles mainly occur below 8km. Moreover, mid- and low-level precipitation are the main source of the column precipitation. The convective precipitation and the stratiform precipitation caused by SWV release much more latent heat than those caused by TPV.

In the framework of the ChArMEx (Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment, http://charmex.lsce.ipsl.fr/) initiative, a field campaign took place in the western Mediterranean Basin between 10 June and 5 July 2013 within the ADRIMED (Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the MEDiterranean region) project. The scientific objectives of ADRIMED are the characterization of the typical “Mediterranean aerosol” and its direct radiative forcing (column closure and regional scale). This work is focused on the multi-intrusion Saharan dust transport period of moderate intensity that occurred over the western and central Mediterranean Basin during the period 14 – 27 June. The dust plumes were detected by the EARLINET/ACTRIS (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network / Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure Network, http://www.actris.net/) lidar stations of Barcelona (16 and 17 June) and Lecce (22 June). First, two well-known and robust radiative transfer models, parametrized by lidar profiles for the aerosol vertical distribution, are validated both in the shortwave and longwave spectral range 1) at the surface with down- and up-ward flux measurements from radiometers and 2) at the top of the atmosphere with upward flux measurements from the CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) radiometers on board the AQUA and TERRA satellites. The differences between models and their limitations are discussed. The instantaneous and clear-sky direct radiative forcing of mineral dust is then estimated using lidar data for parametrizing the particle vertical distribution at Lecce. The difference between the obtained forcings is discussed in regard to the mineralogy and vertical structure of the dust plume.

Areal-averaged albedos are particularly difficult to measure in coastal regions, because the surface is not homogenous, consisting of a sharp demarcation between land and water. With this difficulty in mind, we evaluate a simple retrieval of areal-averaged surface albedo using ground-based measurements of atmospheric transmission alone under fully overcast conditions. To illustrate the performance of our retrieval, we find the areal-averaged albedo using measurements from the Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (MFRSR) at five wavelengths (415, 500, 615, 673, and 870 nm). These MFRSR data are collected at a coastal site in Graciosa Island, Azores supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. The areal-averaged albedos obtained from the MFRSR are compared with collocated and coincident Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) whitesky albedo at four nominal wavelengths (470, 560, 670 and 860 nm). These comparisons are made during a 19-month period (June 2009 - December 2010). We also calculate composite-based spectral values of surface albedo by a weighted-average approach using estimated fractions of major surface types observed in an area surrounding this coastal site. Taken as a whole, these three methods of finding albedo show spectral and temporal similarities, and suggest that our simple, transmission-based technique holds promise, but with estimated errors of about ±0.03. Additional work is needed to reduce this uncertainty in areas with inhomogeneous surfaces.

Cloud coverage is a significant clutter source impacting on space-based infrared remote sensing sensors. In most existing literature, cloud coverage was simply assumed to be homogeneous with Lambertian surface. However, real-world clouds are inhomogeneous. In this work, we focus on the reflection and transmission of solar radiation from inhomogeneous cloud coverage. The paper use Mie scattering theory and radiative transfer theory to calculate bidirectional distribution functions of reflection and transmission. The spectral distributions of transmission and reflection functions within spectral band from 0.4μm to 14μm for stratocumulus cloud are calculated. Results are compared with that of two-stream approximation, demonstrating the effectiveness and accuracy.

Asian dust storms, which can long-range transport to ocean, often occur on spring. The present of Asian dust aerosols over ocean makes some difficult for other studies, such as cloud detection, and also take some advantage for ocean, such as take nutrition into the ocean by dry or wet deposition. Therefore, it is important to study the dust aerosol and retrieve the properties of dust from satellite observations that is mainly from the thermal infrared radiance. In this paper, the thermal infrared radiance properties of dust aerosol over ocean are analyzed from MODIS and MTSAT2 observations and Streamer model simulations. By analyzing some line samples and a series of dust aerosol region, it shows that the dust aerosol brightness temperature at 12μm (BT₁₂) is always greater than BT₁₁ and BT_8.5, and BT_8.5 is general greater than BT₁₁. The brightness temperature different between 11μm and 12μm (BTD_11-12) increases with the dust intensity. And the BTD_11-12 will become positive when the atmospheric relative humidity is greater than 70%. The BTD_11-12 increases gradually with the surface temperature while the effect on BTD_11-12 of dust layer temperature is not evident. Those are caused by the transmission of the dust aerosol is different at the two thermal infrared channels. During daytime, dust infrared brightness temperature at mid-infrared bands should reduce the visual radiance, which takes about 25K or less. In general, BT_3.7 is greater than BT₁₁ for dust aerosol. Those results are helpful to monitor or retrieve dust aerosol physical properties over ocean from satellite.

For an earth observation system, an increase in the off-nadir viewing angle leads to an increase in line of sight scattered radiance. Meanwhile, steep terrain over mountainous area induces changes in irradiance at ground level and then affects the top of atmosphere (TOA) signal. In this paper, a methodology is presented to simulate and analyze the adjacency effects. In the second section of the paper, the radiative transfer equations are built separately for the nadir viewing geometry and the off-nadir viewing geometry over mountainous area. In order to model the adjacency effects, the radiance items related to the adjacency effects are estimated. During the procedure, the molecular/aerosol scattering phase functions, different viewing geometry, ground heterogeneity and topography are taken into account. The performance of this methodology is validated through simulating a set of space-borne data over mountainous areas for nadir viewing angles and off-nadir viewing angles. The results indicate that the contributions of adjacency effect at TOA are significantly different for the varying viewing geometry conditions. The proposed method proved to be useful in understanding the mechanisms of adjacency effects and it will be applied to atmospheric correction of remotely sensed data.

Mixing layer height (MLH) is a key parameter to determine the influence of meteorological parameters upon air pollutants such as trace gas species and particulate concentrations near the surface. Meteorology, and MLH as a key parameter, affect the budget of emission source strengths, deposition, and accumulation. However, greater possibilities for the application of MLH data have been identified in recent years. Here, the results of measurements in Berlin in 2014 are shown and discussed. The concentrations of NO, NO₂, O₃, CO, PM₁, PM_2.5, PM₁₀ and about 70 volatile organic compounds (anthropogenic and biogenic of origin) as well as particle size distributions and contributions of SOA and soot species to PM were measured at the urban background station of the Berlin air quality network (BLUME) in Nansenstr./Framstr., Berlin-Neukölln. A Vaisala ceilometer CL51, which is a commercial mini-lidar system, was applied at that site to detect the layers of the lower atmosphere in real time. Special software for these ceilometers with MATLAB provided routine retrievals of MLH from vertical profiles of laser backscatter data. Five portable Bruker EM27/SUN FTIR spectrometers were set up around Berlin to detect column averaged abundances of CO₂ and CH₄ by solar absorption spectrometry. Correlation analyses were used to show the coupling of temporal variations of trace gas compounds and PM with MLH. Significant influences of MLH upon NO, NO₂, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, PM₁ and toluene (marker for traffic emissions) concentrations as well as particle number concentrations in the size modes 70 – 100 nm, 100 – 200 nm and 200 – 500 nm on the basis of averaged diurnal courses were found. Further, MLH was taken as important auxiliary information about the development of the boundary layer during each day of observations, which was required for the proper estimation of CO₂ and CH₄ source strengths from Berlin on the basis of atmospheric column density measurements.

Methane and Nitrous Oxide are long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with significant global warming effects. We report on application of chirped-pulsed quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) to simultaneous measurements of these trace gases in both open-path fence-line and backscatter systems. The intra-pulse thermal frequency chip in a QCL can be time resolved and calibrated to allow for high resolution differential optical absorption spectroscopy over the spectral window of the chip, which for a DFB-QCL can be reach ~2cm^-1 for a 500 nsec pulse. The spectral line-shape of the output from these lasers are highly stable from pulse to pulse over long period of time (> 1 day), and the system does not require frequent calibrations.

There is a strong need to improve the resolution of Aerosol Optical depth products as more urbanized areas continue to grow. In particular, localized emission sources are likely to create highly localized pollutants that should be monitored. However, in urbanized areas, the land surface itself is a major difficulty since finding dark vegetation pixels becomes harder. Therefore, in order to determine aerosols, a better estimate of the land surface itself should be attempted and should depend strongly on the land surface classification. In order to see if this is possible, we make use of the high density Dragon Network which was deployed in the Washington DC area for summer 2011. The high density of AERONET monitors makes it possible to assess the 3km MODIS AOD retrievals and explore how the deviations of this product depends critically on land surface properties. We then show that we can use improved land surface spectral properties as a function of the different land classes to improve the retrievals. Finally, we explore extended cases including the Dragon Network experiment over Houston from May 1-Nov 1 2013 and specific nearby dual Aeronet instruments where the assessment of urban land surface can be better isolated from variations in aerosol class and solar/view geometries. In both cases, sensitivity to urban surface type is observed and magnified on the high resolution AOD products.

Observing the water vapor distribution on the troposphere remains a challenge for the weather forecast. Radiosondes provide precise water vapor profiles of the troposphere, but lack geographical and temporal coverage, while satellite meteorological maps have good spatial resolution but even poorer temporal resolution. GPS has proved its capacity to measure the integrated water vapor in all weather conditions with high temporal sampling frequency. However these measurements lack a vertical water vapor discretization. Reconstruction of the slant path GPS observation to the satellite allows oblique water vapor measurements. Implementation of a 3D grid of voxels along the troposphere over an area where GPS stations are available enables the observation ray tracing. A relation between the water vapor density and the distanced traveled inside the voxels is established, defining GPS tomography. An inverse problem formulation is needed to obtain a water vapor solution. The combination of precipitable water vapor (PWV) maps obtained from MODIS satellite data with the GPS tomography is performed in this work. The MODIS PWV maps can have 1 or 5 km pixel resolution, being obtained 2 times per day in the same location at most. The inclusion of MODIS PWV maps provides an enhanced horizontal resolution for the tomographic solution and benefits the stability of the inversion problem. A 3D tomographic grid was adjusted over a regional area covering Lisbon, Portugal, where a GNSS network of 9 receivers is available. Radiosonde measurements in the area are used to evaluate the 3D water vapor tomography maps.

Satellite imagery has been considered as an add-on tool to air quality and pollution monitoring due to its extensive spatial and temporal coverage of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The most widely used satellite parameter is the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD). AOD has been extensively used to evaluate and enhance the satellite-based estimates of ground-level particulate matter (PM) as well as to reduce uncertainties in the studies of global health applications. This study attempts to identify correlations between AOD values retrieved from the new MODIS/Aqua high resolution 3km aerosol product and ground-based PM₁₀ measurements obtained within the period 2002-2012 in the area of Athens, Greece. In parallel, it attempts to assess the applicability of the so called mixed effects models which take into account both the spatial and temporal variability of the underlying uncertainties in the estimation of PM₁₀ levels from MODIS AOD measurements. The ground PM₁₀ recordings were acquired from the archive of the in-situ operational air quality monitoring network of Athens. Results indicated that the new AOD product of 3km estimated better PM₁₀ values against the AOD 10km product. Thus, the new 3km product may be better at characterizing aerosol distributions on local scale although bias was observed.

The aerosol system is Southeast Asia is complex and the high concentrations are due to population growth, rapid urbanization and development of SEA countries. Nevertheless, only a few studies have been carried out especially at large spatial extent and on a continuous basis to study atmospheric aerosols in Malaysia. In this review paper we report the use of remote sensing data to study atmospheric aerosols in Malaysia and document gaps and recommend further studies to bridge the gaps. Satellite data have been used to study the spatial and seasonal patterns of aerosol optical depth (AOD) in Malaysia. Satellite data combined with AERONET data were used to delineate different types and sizes of aerosols and to identify the sources of aerosols in Malaysia. Most of the aerosol studies performed in Malaysia was based on station-based PM₁₀ data that have limited spatial coverage. Thus, satellite data have been used to extrapolate and retrieve PM10 data over large areas by correlating remotely sensed AOD with ground-based PM₁₀. Realising the critical role of aerosols on radiative forcing numerous studies have been conducted worldwide to assess the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF). Such studies are yet to be conducted in Malaysia. Although the only source of aerosol data covering large region in Malaysia is remote sensing, satellite observations are limited by cloud cover, orbital gaps of satellite track, etc. In addition, relatively less understanding is achieved on how the atmospheric aerosol interacts with the regional climate system. These gaps can be bridged by conducting more studies using integrated approach of remote sensing, AERONET and ground based measurements.

Remote sensing technology application emerges as a useful tool for exploring atmospheric pollution revelation in the last two decade. In this study, we used Aura satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) tropospheric NO₂ and pbl SO₂ retrieval data (October 2004 – September 2013) to generate a composite spatial map of different seasons over New Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). For surface measurements, we used Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) NO₂ and SO₂ data (January 2005 – December 2013). Further, we compared the satellite retrievals data to the surface measurements. A higher NO₂ concentration in both OMI and CPCB stations measurements are obtained in winter season followed by summer and minimum in monsoon months. OMI SO₂ concentration is higher in monsoon months and almost comparable in summer and winter seasons. We obtained a statistically significant correlation between OMI tropospheric NO₂ and CPCB surface measurements.

Aerosol plays a key role in the assessment of global climate change and environmental health, while observation is one of important way to deepen the understanding of aerosol properties. In this study, the newly instrument – lunar photometer is used to measure moonlight and nocturnal column aerosol optical depth (AOD, τ) is retrieved. The AOD algorithm is test and verified with sun photometer both in high and low aerosol loading. Ångström exponent (α) and fine/coarse mode AOD (τf, τc) ¹ is derived from spectral AOD. The column aerosol properties (τ, α, τf, τc) inferred from the lunar photometer is analyzed based on two month measurement in Beijing. Micro-pulse lidar has advantages in retrieval of aerosol vertical distribution, especially in night. However, the typical solution of lidar equation needs lidar ratio(ratio of aerosol backscatter and extinction coefficient) assumed in advance(Fernald method), or constrained by AOD². Yet lidar ratio is varied with aerosol type and not easy to fixed, and AOD is used of daylight measurement, which is not authentic when aerosol loading is different from day and night. In this paper, the nocturnal AOD measurement from lunar photometer combined with mie scattering lidar observations to inverse aerosol extinction coefficient(σ) profile in Beijing is discussed.

This article reviews the project of subsystem that reflects the Earth remote sensing data from the space in order to monitor the forest fire danger, caused by the focused solar radiation effect. This subsystem is based on the use of sensing data from the MODIS instrument aboard the Terra satellite. We consider the Timiryazevsky Forestry of Tomsk region to be a typical territory of the boreal forest zone. To estimate the forest fire danger level, we use an original method to classify the forest areas according to their characteristics (the ground mensuration data) and the main meteorological parameters, namely, the cloud cover on this territory, obtained from the MODIS satellite data.

Aerospace activity becomes research hotspot for worldwide aviation big countries. Solar radiation study is the prerequisite for aerospace activity to carry out, but lack of observation in near space layer becomes the barrier. Based on reanalysis data, input key parameters are determined and simulation experiments are tried separately to simulate downward solar radiation and ultraviolet radiation transfer process of near space in China area. Results show that atmospheric influence on the solar radiation and ultraviolet radiation transfer process has regional characteristic. As key factors such as ozone are affected by atmospheric action both on its density, horizontal and vertical distribution, meteorological data of stratosphere needs to been considered and near space in China area is divided by its activity feature. Simulated results show that solar and ultraviolet radiation is time, latitude and ozone density-variant and has complicated variation characteristics.

This work intends to consider the retrieval algorithms of remote sensing for severe air pollutions. In these cases mixture of aerosols and clouds, namely aerosols in cloudy scenes and/or clouds in heavy aerosol episode, are often occurred. Aerosol retrieval in the hazy atmosphere has been achieved based on radiation simulation method of successive order of scattering (MSOS). JAXA has been developing the new Earth observing system GCOM−C satellite. GCOM−C will be launched in early of 2017 and board the polarization sensor SGLI. The SGLI has multi (19)-channels as MODIS and measures polarized reflected sunlight at wavelengths of 0.679 μm and 0.869 μm as POLDER. The radiance and polarization degree are taken into account here in the severe biomass burning episode over Borneo islands in Indonesia observed by PARASOL / POLDER and Aqua/MODIS. As a result the possibility of JAXA / GCOM−C / SGLI related to remote sensing for a mixture case of aerosols and clouds can be examined.

Estimation of solar radiation is very important basic research which can be used in solar energy resources estimation, prediction of crop yields, resource-related decision-making and so on. Accordingly, recently diverse researches for estimating solar radiation are performing in Korea. Heliosat-II method is one of the widely used model to estimate solar irradiance, and it's accuracy has been demonstrated by many other studies. But Heliosat-II method cannot be applied directly for estimate solar irradiance around Korea. Because Heliosat-II method is optimized for estimating solar radiation of Europe. Basically Heliosat-II method estimate solar radiation by using Meteosat meteorological satellite imagery and statistical data which are taken around Europe. Because these data do not include Korea, Heliosat-II method must be modified for using in estimation solar radiation of Korea. So purpose of this study is Heliosat-II modification for irradiance estimation by using image of COMS-M, weather satellite of Korea. For this purpose, in this study, error if albedo was removed in ground albedo image which was made by using apparent albedo and atmosphere reflectance. And method of producing background albedo map which is used in Heliosat-II method is modified for getting more delicate one. Through the study, ground albedo correction could be successfully performed and background albedo maps could be successfully derived.

A method for the estimation of Stable Boundary Layer Height (SBLH) using curvature of the potential temperature profiles retrieved by a Microwave Radiometer (MWR) is presented. The vertical resolution of the MWR-derived temperature profile decreases with the height. A spline interpolation is carried-out to obtain a uniformly discretized temperature profile. The curvature parameter is calculated from the first and second order derivatives of the interpolated potential temperature profile. The first minima of the curvature parameter signifies the point where the temperature profile starts changing from the stable to the residual conditions. The performance of the method is analyzed by comparing it against physically idealized models of the stable boundary-layer temperature profile available in the literature. There are five models which include stable-mixed, mixed-linear, linear, polynomial and exponential. For a given temperature profile these five models are fitted using the non-linear least-squares approach. The best fitting model is chosen as the one which fits with the minimum root-mean-square error. Comparison of the SBLH estimates from curvature-based method with the physically idealized models shows that the method works qualitatively and quantitatively well with lower variation. Potential application of this approach is the situation where given temperature profiles are significantly deviant from the idealized models. The method is applied to data from a Humidity-and-Temperature Profiler (HATPRO) MWR collected during the HD(CP)² Observational Prototype Experiment (HOPE) campaign at Jülich, Germany. Radiosonde data, whenever available, is used as the ground-truth.

With the increasing industrialization and urbanization, especially in the metropolis regions, aerosol pollution has highly negative effects on environment. Urbanization is responsible of three major changes that may have impact on the urban atmosphere: replacement of the natural surfaces with buildings and impermeable pavements, heat of anthropogenic origin and air pollution. The importance of aerosols for radiative and atmospheric chemical processes is widely recognized. They can scatter and/or absorb solar radiation leading to changes of the radiation budget. Also, the so-called indirect effect of aerosols describes the cloud-aerosol interactions, which can modify the chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere. Their high spatial variability and short lifetime make spaceborne sensors especially well suited for their observation. Remote sensing is a key application in global-change science and urban climatology. Since the launch of the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) there is detailed global aerosol information available, both over land and oceans The aerosol parameters can be measured directly in situ or derived from satellite remote sensing observations. All these methods are important and complementary. The objective of this work was to document the seasonal and inter-annual patterns of the aerosol pollution particulate matter in two size fractions (PM10 and PM2.5) loading and air quality index (AQI) over Bucharest metropolitan area in Romania based on in-situ and MODIS (Terra–Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer) satellite time series data over 2010-2012 period. Accurate information of urban air pollution is required for environmental and health policy, but also to act as a basis for designing and stratifying future monitoring networks.

New shipborne aureolemeter was developed to improve the sun-tracking performance for accurate measurements of not only direct but also circumsolar radiation, even on a vessel weltering. Sun position is determined by a real-time image processing system with a CCD camera. The accuracy of the sun position determination is finer than 0.01°. The radiometer is tracked the sun under a feedback control with the derived sun position. For a sky radiance distribution measurement, the control target position on the CCD camera image is shifted a pixel corresponding to a measuring scattering angle. In the case of a scattering angle larger than 7°, the radiometer’s tracking is conducted under feed forward control on the basis of the angle of roll and pitch monitored with a gyroscope. The instrument constants were determined from a Langley plot method. Test observation was conducted onboard the Antarctic research vessel (R/V) Shirase during the 56th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-56; 2014-2015). Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) was measured. The measurement of the sky radiance distribution is being analyzed to derive the aerosol optical properties.