Further, the aerosol size distribution is derived over the oceans, and the aerosol type is derived over the continents. Research and Application Aerosols are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate modeling.
Aerosols scatter back to space and absorb solar radiation.
There was no real attempt to retrieve aerosol content over land on a global scale. Algorithms had been developed for use only over dark vegetation. Over the land, the dynamic aerosol models will be derived from ground-based sky measurements and used in the net retrieval process. Over the ocean, three parameters that describe the aerosol loading and size distribution will be retrieved. The quality control of these products will be based on comparison with ground stations and climatology.