Aerosol Layer Height Measurements Made by Earth Observation Satellites

CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS

Measurements > Atmosphere >
Aerosols >
Aerosol Layer Height

Measurement Definition*: Height of vertically localized aerosol layers in the free troposphere, such as desert dust, biomass burning aerosol or volcanic ash plumes. Measuring Units km, Uncertainty Units km

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ECV Aerosols properties

Instrument	Status/ Accuracy	Instrument Description	Measurement Technology	Timeline
AMI Advanced Meteorological Imager	Operational	Continuous monitoring capability for the near real-time generation of high-resolution meteorological products and long-term change analysis of land/sea surface temperature and cloud coverage.	n/a
POSP Particulate Observing Scanning Polarimeter	Operational	Sensor to map radiometric and polarimetric information of global atmospheric particulate matter specifically PM2.5 and PM10 distributions.	n/a
SPEXone Spectro-Polarimeter for Exploration	Operational	Polarimeter for measuring aerosol optical properties, clouds and aerosol types. Multi-angle spectro-polarimetry by spectral modulation technology. Distribution and detailed micro-phyiscal properties of atmospheric aerosol. Direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing and their impact on climate. A second instance of this instrument is in development.	n/a
ACX GeoXO Atmospheric Composition Instrument	Being developed		n/a
UVN (Sentinel-4) UV-visible- near infrared imaging spectrometer (Sentinel-4)	Being developed	Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services.	n/a
UVNS (Sentinel-5) Ultra-violet Visible Near-infrared Shortwave-infrared spectrometer	Being developed	Supporting atmospheric composition and air quality monitoring services. Measurements of atmospheric trace gases, primarily O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CH4, CO, CHOCHO as well as Aerosols and UV Index.	n/a

* Description adapted from WMO.