Other Names
Aerosol Optical Depth, τ, tau
Definition
"Aerosol Optical Thickness" is the degree to which aerosols prevent the transmission of light.
The aerosol optical depth or optical thickness (τ) is defined as the integrated extinction coefficient over a vertical column of unit cross section. Extinction coefficient is the fractional depletion of radiance per unit path length (also called attenuation especially in reference to radar frequencies). The optical thickness along the vertical direction is also called normal optical thickness (compared to optical thickness along slant path length).
Applications
| (1) Atmospheric correction of remotely sensed surface features | (5) Air Quality |
| (2) Monitoring of sources and sinks of aerosols | (6) Health and Environment |
| (3) Monitoring of volcanic eruptions and forest fire | (7) Earth Radiation Budget |
| (4) Radiative Transfer Model | (8) Climate Change |
GES DISC Datasets
Other sources for data
Atmos Composition
