A parameterization of the diffuse transmittance and reflectance for aerosol remote sensing problems

To account for surface reflection is a major and most complex issue of any satellite aerosol retrieval algorithm. The surface contribution to the satellite signal is usually calculated assuming Lambertian reflection. Then the problem is reduced to the calculation of total atmospheric transmittance and spherical albedo. Usually, these parameters are stored in so-called look-up tables (LUTs), which can be quite large. The main aim of this paper is the parameterization of these look-up tables in terms of simple approximate equations, which can be subsequently used in aerosol remote sensing techniques over reflecting land surfaces.