Aerosol optical depth determination from ground based irradiance ratios.

The atmospheric optical depth serves as an input parameter to atmospheric correction procedures in remote sensing and as an index of atmospheric opacity or constituent columnar abundance for meteorological applications. Its measurement, typically performed by means of a small field of view radiometer centered on the solar disk, is sensitive to the absolute calibration accuracy of the instrument. In this paper a simple technique is presented which permits the extraction of aerosol optical depth from the ratio of total to direct irradiance measurements. An error analysis performed on the results of radiative transfer simulations and field measurements indicates that the technique generates values of aerosol optical depth which are sufficiently accurate for many applications. This method thus represents a useful alternative to standard sunphotometer measurements.