The upgraded systems SENSE2 and NextSENSE2 focus on improving the quality of solar nowcasting and forecasting. SENSE2 provides real-time estimates of solar irradiance across a wide region every 15 min. NextSENSE2 offers short-term forecasts of irradiance up to 3 h ahead. Evaluation with actual data showed that the instantaneous comparison yields the most discrepancies due to the uncertainties of cloud-related information and satellite versus ground-based spatial representativeness limitations.

An overview is given of the main algorithms applied to derive the aerosol and cloud optical property product of the Aerosol and Carbon Detection Lidar (ACDL), which is capable of globally profiling aerosol and cloud optical properties with high accuracy. The paper demonstrates the observational capabilities of ACDL for aerosol and cloud vertical structure and global distribution through two optical property product measurement cases and global aerosol optical depth profile observations.

The new version (V2) of the OMI ozone profile product is introduced to improve retrieval quality and long-term consistency of tropospheric ozone by incorporating the recent collection 4 OMI L1b spectral products and refining radiometric correction, forward model calculation, and a priori ozone data.

The study focused on evaluating and modifying the surface reflectance parameterization (SRP) of the Dark Target (DT) algorithm for geostationary observation. When using the DT SRP with the ABIs sensor on GOES-R, artificial diurnal signatures were present in AOD retrieval. To overcome this issue, a new SRP was developed, incorporating solar zenith angle and land cover type. The revised SRP resulted in improved AOD retrieval, demonstrating reduced bias around local noon.

We assimilate different MOPITT CO products to understand the impact of (1) assimilating multispectral and joint retrievals versus single spectral products, (2) assimilating satellite profile products versus column products, and (3) assimilating multispectral and joint retrievals versus assimilating individual products separately.

The term “hotspot” refers to the sharp increase in reflectance occurring when incident (solar) and reflected (viewing) directions coincide in the backscatter direction. The accurate simulation of hotspot directional signatures is important for many remote sensing applications, but current models typically require large values of computations to represent the hotspot accurately. This paper provides a numerically improved hotspot BRDF model that converges much faster and is used in VLIDORT.

Three fast-measurement formaldehyde monitors were deployed at two field sites in Atlanta, GA, over 1 year. Four different zeroing methods were tested to develop an optimal field setup as well as procedures for instrument calibration. Observations agreed well after calibration but were much higher compared to the TO-11A monitoring method, which is the golden standard. Historical HCHO concentrations were compared with measurements in this work, showing a 22 % reduction in midday HCHO since 1999.

There remain large uncertainties in long-term changes of stratospheric–atmospheric temperatures. We have produced a time series of more than 20 years of satellite-based temperature measurements from the OSIRIS instrument in the upper–middle stratosphere. The dataset is publicly available and intended to be used for a better understanding of changes in stratospheric temperatures.

In this paper, Xinjiang was the test area, and nine evaluation indexes of FY-2F/CTA, including precision rate, false rate, missing rate, consistency rate, strong rate, weak rate, bias, AE, and RMSE, were calculated and analyzed under complex underlying surface (subsurface types, temperature and altitude conditions) and different weather conditions (dust effects and different cloud cover levels). The precision, consistency, and error indexes of FY-2F/CTA were tested and evaluated.

An algorithm is presented to derive a new SAGE III/ISS (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station) Level-2 product: the size distribution of stratospheric particles. This is a significant improvement over previous techniques in that we now provide uncertainty estimates for all inferred parameters. We also evaluated the stability of this method in retrieving bimodal distribution parameters. We present a special application to the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga.

Over 50 % of naturally occurring radiation exposure is due to ²²²Rn (progenies), but traceability of measurements to the International System of Units (SI) is lacking. To address this, two new ²²²Rn sources were developed to be used as calibration standards for reference instruments. These sources were investigated by comparing their estimated calibration factors for one instrument. Despite the small differences derived, all uncertainties are well within the intended target uncertainty of 10 %.

The Multichannel Organics In situ enviRonmental Analyzer (MOIRA) is a new instrument for measuring speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air and has been developed for mapping concentrations from a hybrid car. MOIRA is characterized in the lab and pilot field studies of indoor air in a single-family residence and outdoor air during a mobile deployment. Future applications include indoor, outdoor, and lab measurements to grasp the impact of VOCs on air quality, health, and climate.

Previously, a new method for atmospheric aerosol flux was proposed, and a large-aperture scintillometer was developed for experimental measurements, but the method was consistently not validated. In this paper, eddy correlation experiments for aerosol vertical transport fluxes were conducted to verify the reliability of the previous large-aperture scintillometer method. The experimental results also show that urban green land is a sink area for aerosol particles.

Methane is an important driver of climate change and is challenging to inexpensively sense in low atmospheric concentrations. We developed a low-cost sensor to monitor methane and tested it in indoor and outdoor settings. Our device shows promise for monitoring low levels of methane. We characterize its limitations and suggest future research directions for further development.

A narrow-band sodium lidar measures atmospheric waves but is limited to vertical variations. We propose to utilize phase shifts among observations from different laser beams to derive horizontal wave information. Two gravity wave packets were identified by this method. Both waves were found to interact with thin evanescent layers, partially reflected, but transmitted energy to higher altitudes. The method can detect more medium-frequency gravity waves for similar lidar systems worldwide.

This paper describes an updated process to obtain unfiltered radiation from CERES satellite instruments by incorporating the most recent developments in radiative transfer modeling and ancillary input datasets (e.g., realistic representation of land surface radiation and climatology of surface temperatures and aerosols) during the past 20 years. The resulting global mean of instantaneous SW and LW fluxes is changed by less than 0.5 W m⁻² with regional differences as large as 2.0 W m⁻².

Commercial microwave links (CMLs) can be used for rainfall retrieval. The detection of rainy periods in their attenuation time series is a crucial processing step. We investigate the usage of rainfall data from MSG SEVIRI for this task, compare this approach with existing methods, and introduce a novel combined approach. The results show certain advantages for SEVIRI-based methods, particularly for CMLs where existing methods perform poorly. Our novel combination yields the best performance.

Our paper describes the development of a collection device that can be used to collect airborne dust particles classified according to their size. This collection device is optimized for a special analysis method based on X-ray fluorescence so that particles can be collected from the air and analyzed with high sensitivity. This enables the determination of the content of heavy metals in the airborne particle fraction, which are of health-relevant significance.

The paper describes a new machine-learning-based snowfall retrieval algorithm for Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder observations developed to retrieve high-latitude snowfall events. The main novelty of the approach is the radiometric characterization of the background surface at the time of the overpass, which is ancillary to the retrieval process. The algorithm shows a unique capability to retrieve snowfall in the environmental conditions typical of high latitudes.

We conducted a radiance closure experiment using a unique combination of two hyperspectral radiometers, one operating in the microwave and the other in the infrared. By comparing the measurements of the two hyperspectrometers to synthetic radiance simulated from collocated atmospheric profiles, we affirmed the proper performance of the two instruments and quantified their radiometric uncertainty for atmospheric sounding applications.

This paper introduces a new surface albedo climatology of directionally dependent Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (DLER) observed by TROPOMI on the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. The database contains monthly fields of DLER for 21 wavelength bands at a relatively high spatial resolution of 0.125 by 0.125 degrees. The anisotropy of the surface reflection is handled by parameterisation of the viewing angle dependence.