Satellite remote sensing of aerosol optical depth: advances, challenges, and perspectives

Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is widely recognized as a critical indicator in understanding atmospheric physics and regional air quality because of its capability for quantifying aerosol loading in the atmosphere. Retrieving AOD from space-borne sensors’ observations has become the primary technique for monitoring aerosol loading on a large scale. There is currently a renewed interest in designing new satellite sensors and developing more advanced retrieval algorithms to measure AOD from space in order to better quantify concentrations of particulate matters (PMs) for advanced air quality management, environmental health assessment, and climate change studies. However, retrieving high-resolution AOD at varying scales is still a challenging task due to the low signal-to-noise ratio in sensing, algorithmic synthesis constraints, downscaling issues, and data gaps resulting from adverse impacts such as cloud contamination. Current state-of-the-art technologies still do not permit delicate urban-scale environmental health studies based on appropriate AOD-PMs relationships. This review paper provides a holistic view of the major advances in AOD measurements, elucidates the limitations of current AOD products, presents the challenges with respect to the derivation of high-resolution AOD, and highlights perspectives regarding the possible improvements of satellite-based AOD estimation.