Patent ID: 9188523
Filing Date: 2015-11-17
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A system for estimating size distribution and concentration of aerosols in an atmospheric region, comprising: a digital camera having an image aperture; a sunlight attenuation filter adapted to be positioned at a location that is aligned between the Earth's sun and said image aperture; and a processor coupled to said digital camera and programmed with image processing routines, said processor executing said image processing routines using a digital image captured by said digital camera when said sunlight attenuation filter and the sky of an atmospheric region are in focus of said digital camera, said digital image defined by (i) sunlight from the Earth's sun passing through the atmospheric region and subsequently passed through said sunlight attenuation filter, and (ii) sunlight from the Earth's sun scattered by the atmospheric region and not incident on said sunlight attenuation filter, said image processing routines comparing intensity of a first portion of said digital image defined by said sunlight so-scattered by the atmospheric region to a plurality of Mie and Rayleigh scattering computations generated for aerosols of known size distributions wherein a closest match there between is indicative of size distribution of aerosols in the atmospheric region, and said image processing routines further determining total solar irradiance in a second portion of said digital image defined by said sunlight so-passed through said sunlight attenuation filter wherein said total solar irradiance is indicative of a total concentration of aerosols in the atmospheric region.