About this Research Topic
Atmospheric aerosols refer to a stable mixed system composed of solid particles and liquid particles uniformly dispersed in the atmosphere; trace gases indicate the gas components with little content in the atmosphere. They can affect the energy exchange of the earth-atmosphere system by absorbing and scattering solar radiation, and participate in the water and atmospheric chemical cycles, showing important direct and indirect impacts on local or global climate change and ecological environment. In particular, particulate matters (e.g., PM2.5, PM10) and polluted gases (e.g., O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CO) at the ground level pose severe hazards to human health. A better understanding of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases is of great significance to the related studies on atmosphere, environment, and health.
Satellite remote sensing technology has the unique advantages of wide spatiotemporal coverages and low cost compared to traditional observations, which has become an effective means of quantitative monitoring of atmospheric composition. However, extraction of key atmospheric parameters is still facing great challenges limited by a large number of uncertain factors, including cloud contaminations, complex sources of aerosols and trace gases, weak satellite signals, lack of vertical information, and poor model mining ability. In addition, current available relevant atmospheric products are generated at coarse spatiotemporal resolutions and are hard to meet the study requirements in small and medium-scale areas such as urban. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the overall accuracy, vertical discrimination, and spatiotemporal resolutions of the key parameters of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases, by collaboratively using multi-source satellite remote sensing data and involving more potential influence variables to develop advanced quantitative remote sensing models. This will also help us better and more accurately understand their spatiotemporal variations and potential response mechanism, especially their impacts on the atmospheric environment, climate change, and human health.
In this context, the Topic Editor team welcomes papers to contribute towards this Research Topic on advanced remote sensing techniques and instrument concepts for enhancing the spatiotemporal characterization of atmospheric aerosols trace gases. This Research Topic covers, but is not limited to, the following concepts:
• Aerosol retrieval
• Aerosol composition separation
• Particulate matter estimation
• Trace gas retrieval
• Surface gas estimation
• Aerosol radiative forcing
• Air pollution
• Cloud detection and restoration
• Data integration and fusion
• Data downscaling
Satellite remote sensing technology has the unique advantages of wide spatiotemporal coverages and low cost compared to traditional observations, which has become an effective means of quantitative monitoring of atmospheric composition. However, extraction of key atmospheric parameters is still facing great challenges limited by a large number of uncertain factors, including cloud contaminations, complex sources of aerosols and trace gases, weak satellite signals, lack of vertical information, and poor model mining ability. In addition, current available relevant atmospheric products are generated at coarse spatiotemporal resolutions and are hard to meet the study requirements in small and medium-scale areas such as urban. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the overall accuracy, vertical discrimination, and spatiotemporal resolutions of the key parameters of atmospheric aerosols and trace gases, by collaboratively using multi-source satellite remote sensing data and involving more potential influence variables to develop advanced quantitative remote sensing models. This will also help us better and more accurately understand their spatiotemporal variations and potential response mechanism, especially their impacts on the atmospheric environment, climate change, and human health.
In this context, the Topic Editor team welcomes papers to contribute towards this Research Topic on advanced remote sensing techniques and instrument concepts for enhancing the spatiotemporal characterization of atmospheric aerosols trace gases. This Research Topic covers, but is not limited to, the following concepts:
• Aerosol retrieval
• Aerosol composition separation
• Particulate matter estimation
• Trace gas retrieval
• Surface gas estimation
• Aerosol radiative forcing
• Air pollution
• Cloud detection and restoration
• Data integration and fusion
• Data downscaling
Keywords: atmospheric aerosols, remote sensing, trace gas, aerosol retrieval, particulate matter estimation
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
