Impact of Aerosol Optical Properties, Precipitable Water, and Solar Geometry on Sky Radiances Using Radiative Transfer Modeling

Abstract

Radiative transfer modeling is used to investigate the effect of aerosol optical properties and water vapor on cloud-free sky radiances at various atmospheric conditions. Simulations are generated by changing the most critical aerosol optical properties, namely aerosol optical depth, Ångström exponent, the single-scattering albedo, the precipitable water, and the solar zenith angle (SZA) in three different spectral ranges: ultraviolet A, visible, and near-infrared.

Keywords

• aerosols
• aerosol optical properties
• water vapor
• sky radiance
• radiative transfer model