<title>Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosol over China</title>

Abstract

For better understanding the distribution of atmospheric aerosol over China and its impact on climate, remote sensing aerosol optical depth (AOD) from satellite over 25 lakes has been done in China. The distribution of aerosol over the whole country is interpolated from these data. Four Sun-photometers also have been used to measure the data of AOD nearby four of these lakes for validating the remote sensing algorithm of satellite. The result shows that the southeast region of China has the biggest AOD over four seasons of the year and the value of AOD has slight variety between different seasons; the northwest area of China has a maximum in spring, but in other seasons, the value of AOD is low. This result fit to the fact that spring is the dry season in northwest of China and dust storm often occurs in this area, other season seldom has dust storm. The high value of AOD in the southeast China is coincident with the intensive industry, agriculture and other human activities in this region.