Aerosol properties from EP-TOMS near UV observations Original Research Article

A method of aerosol detection and characterization using satellite measured radiances in the near ultraviolet has recently been developed. The retrieval approach is based on the interaction between the processes of aerosol absorption and scattering and the strong near-UV Rayleigh scattering. That interaction produces spectral variations of the backscattered radiances that can be used to separate aerosol absorption from scattering effects. In this paper, we briefly discuss the physical basis of the near UV approach for aerosol sensing from space, and illustrate its application to specific aerosol events using data from the currently operational Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer on the Earth Probe satellite (EP-TOMS). EP-TOMS derived optical depths of mineral, carbonaceous and sulfate aerosols are in good agreement with ground-based AERONET sun-photometer measurements.