Assessment of atmospheric optical thickness measured by handheld spectroradiometer for air pollution studies

Abstract

This study was conducted to observe the sky radiation for air quality retrieval from spectroradiometer measurements over USM campus. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of a spectroradiometer for providing useful remotely sensed data for air pollution studies. Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) values were derived from the atmospheric transmittance measurements. A well known Beer-Lambert-Bouguer law was applied to obtain aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from the atmospheric transmittance. Finally, the AOT map was generated using Kriging interpolation technique. This paper demonstrates the application of spectroradiometer data to retrieve AOT values in USM campus, Penang, Malaysia.