The assessment of atmospheric pollution using satellite remote sensing technology in large cities in the vicinity of airports

This paper investigates the potential of using satellite remotely sensed imagery for assessing atmospheric pollution. A novel approach, which comprised radiative transfer calculations and pseudo-invariant targets for determining aerosol optical thickness has been developed. The key parameter for assessing atmospheric pollution in photochemical air pollution studies is the aerosol optical thickness. The need for identifying suitable pseudo-invariant objects in satellite images of urban areas is of great interest for increasing the potential of earth observation for monitoring air pollution in such areas. The identification of large water bodies and concrete aprons that can serve as suitable dark and bright targets respectively in different geographical areas was demonstrated in this study. This study added evidence on the correlation found between the visibility values measured at Heathrow Airport area during satellite overpass and aerosol optical thickness derived from Landsat-5 TMband 1 images