Aerosol-extinction Retrieval Method at Three Effective RGB Wavelengths Using a Commercial Digital Camera

Abstract

In this article, we suggest a new method for measuring an aerosol’s extinction coefficient using a commercial camera. For a given image, we choose three pixel-points that are imaged for the same kinds of objects located in similar directions. We suggest and calculate aerosol extinction coefficients from these RGB gray levels and the different distances of the three objects. To compare our measurement results, we also measure extinction coefficients using lidar. Finally, we find that there are meaningful and sensible correlations between these two measurements, with a correlation coefficient of 0.86. We measure the aerosol extinction coefficient at three different RGB wavelengths using the same method. From these aerosol extinction coefficients at three different wavelengths, we find that the Angstrom exponent ranges from 0.7 to 1.6 over a full daytime period. We believe that these Angstrom exponents can give important information about the size of the fine particles.