This new text offers experienced students a comprehensive review of available techniques for the remote sensing of aerosols. These small particles influence both atmospheric visibility and the thermodynamics of the atmosphere. They are also of great importance in any consideration of climate change problems. Aerosols may also be responsible for the loss of harvests, human health problems and ecological disasters. Thus, this detailed study of aerosol properties on a global scale could not be more timely.

Remote Sensing is of paramount importance for Earth Observation to monitor and analyze the Earth’s vital signs. In this Special Issue are reported the latest research results involving active optical remote sensing instruments, both from ground-based to satellite platforms, that are involved in analyzing the vertical and horizontal aerosol and cloud distribution, other than their geometrical, optical and microphysical properties. Those active optical remote sensing techniques are also very useful in determining pollutant dispersion and the dynamics inside the boundary layer. The published studies put in evidence the hidden mechanisms on how pollution from the source is advected transnationally in other countries and the interaction with local meteorology.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of how aerosols form in the atmosphere through in situ processes as well as via transport from the surface (dust storms, seas spray, biogenic emissions, forest fires etc.). Such an analysis has been followed by the consideration of both observation data (various field observational experiments) and numerical modeling results to assess climate impacts of aerosols bearing in mind that these impacts are the most significant uncertainty in studying natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change.

The book describes the morphological, physical and chemical properties of aerosols from various natural and anthropogenic sources to help the reader better understand the direct role of aerosol particles in scattering and absorbing short- and long-wave radiation.