Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols with the spectropolarimeter SPEX

Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols is still an underdeveloped technique, despite the significant influence of aerosols on public health, climate and economy. Current methods are local, time consuming, expensive, and cannot determine macro- and microphysical aerosol properties simultaneously. Spectropolarimetry is a promising remote sensing method for the detection and characteri- zation of aerosols. It is unique in its capability to unambiguously retrieve microphysical aerosol parameters such as size distribution, chemical composition and shape. Existing polarimetric instrumentation either uses a few broad spectral bands, a limited number of viewing angles, or is not accurate enough to fully exploit the polarization measurements.