Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) · 1994 · 31 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesEarth SciencesAtmospheric ChemistryAtmospheric ScienceRemote SensingAerosol Remote SensingAtmospheric OpticsAtmospheric Sounding From SatellitesSatellite InstrumentationSatellite SensorsAerosol MonitoringAerosol Optical Depth ValidationAerosol Optical PropertiesAerosol Optical ThicknessOptical Thickness MeasurementParticle-size DistributionPassive Sensor Aerosol RetrievalsRadiometer Calibration
A weather resistant automatic scanning Sun photometer system is assessed and demonstrated as practical for measurements of aerosol concentrations and properties at remote sites. Interfaced with a transmitter using the Geostationary Data Collection System (GDCS), the data are processed in near real time. The processing allows a time dependence of the aerosols and water vapor and an ongoing assessment of the health and calibration of the instruments. The system's automatic data acquisition, transmission, and processing offer immediate application to atmospheric monitoring and modeling on a regional to global scale and validation of satellite retrievals. It is estimated that under normal circumstances the retrieved aerosol optical thickness has a network wide accuracy of +/- 0.02 from 340 nm to 1020 nm, water vapor +/- 0.2 cm and size distribution from 0.1 to 3 micrometers.