Remote sensing of aerosols at night with the CoSQM sky brightness data

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Marseille, Charles, Aubé, Martin, Barreto Velasco, África, Simoneau, Alexandre
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: Artificial light at night; Aerosol optical depth; Radiometry; Multispectral; Measurement; Aerosol Robotic Network
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11765/13438

Aerosol optical depth is an important indicator of aerosol particle properties and their associated radiative impacts. AOD determination is very important to achieve relevant climate modelling. Most remote sensing techniques to retrieve aerosol optical depth are applicable to daytime given the high level of light available. The night represents half of the time but in such conditions only a few remote sensing methods are available. Among these approaches, the most reliable are moon photometers and star photometers. In this paper, we attempt to fill gaps in the aerosol detection performed with the aforementioned techniques using night sky brightness measurements during moonless nights with the novel CoSQM, a portable, low-cost and open-source multispectral photometer. In this paper, we present an innovative method for estimating the aerosol optical depth using an empirical relationship between the zenith night sky brightness measured at night with the CoSQM and the aerosol optical depth retrieved during daytime from the AErosol Robotic NETwork.