Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the optical properties of aerosols based on a finite number of extinction measurements. This kind of problem arises in many situations involving the remote sensing of aerosols with optical instrumentation such as radiometers for extinction measurements and lidar systems for backscattering measurements. A technique has been developed so that extinction measurements at a finite number of spectral regions can be inverted directly to yield either extinction or backscattering values at other wavelength regions without solving for the aerosol size distribution function. This technique is based on the inversion method developed by Backus and Gilbert. The approach has been successfully used in the retrieval algorithm for the SAGE II satellite measurements of aerosol and ozone vertical profiles. Extension of this method to the conversion of extinction measurements into backscattering values has been applied to the comparison of SAGE II aerosol extinction data with coincident lidar backscattering measurements.

© 1988 Optical Society of America