Remote Sensing of Heavy Aerosol Pollution Episodes: Smoke and Dust

Abstract In this chapter, we observe the remote sensing of aerosols in heavy pollution episodes. Extreme concentrations of aerosols in the atmosphere, such as dust storms or biomass burning plumes, prevent aerosol monitoring from the ground surface, whereas satellite observation can still be available from space. This chapter has two major parts. In the first part, we focus on the interpretation of the approaches for detecting heavy aerosol episodes such as dust storms and biomass burning plumes; the second part describes the algorithms for aerosol retrieval and showcases an example of the retrieved aerosol properties in the heavy biomass burning episodes in Siberia. In addition, polarization remote sensing is briefly mentioned as a promising tool for this field.