Remote sensing of the atmosphere and oceans

Instructor:
Professor Irina N. Sokolik
office 2258, ph.404-894-6180
email: isokolik@eas.gatech.edu

Location and meeting time:
Tuesday/Thursday 1:35-2:55 PM
ES&T L1175

Dec. 8, 2 PM, L1114: Students class projects presentations.

Aug. 19	Lecture 1.	Basics of EM radiation
Aug. 21	Lecture 2.	Introductory survey
Aug. 26	Lecture 3.	Properties of electromagnetic radiation. Polarization. Stokes’ parameters. Main radiation laws. Brightness temperature. Emission from ocean and land surfaces.
Aug. 28	Lab. 1	Planck function and main radiation laws. Passive microwave remote sensing of sea-ice.
Sep. 2	Lecture 4.	Composition and structure of the atmosphere. Absorption/emission by atmospheric gases. Overview of satellite instruments providing measurements of atmospheric composition.
Sep. 4	Lab. 2	Spectral absorption of atmospheric gases and the transmission function.
Sep. 9	Lecture 5.	Properties of atmospheric aerosols and clouds. Scattering by small particles: Rayleigh (molecular) scattering.
Sep. 11	Lecture 6.	Scattering and absorption by aerosol and cloud particles. Mie theory. Main radiation law (Beer-Bouger- Lambert law)
Sep. 16	Lab. 3	Modeling of optical characteristics with Mie theory. Analysis of aerosol optical depth retrieved from ground-based sunphotometers.
Sep. 17	Lab. 4	Examples of working with NASA satellite data: Retrieving and processing CloudSat and AIRS data using IDL.
Sep. 23	Lecture 7.	Multiple scattering as a source of radiation. Reflectance from surfaces. Remote sensing of ocean color.
Sep. 25	Lab. 5	Surface albedo and ocean color. Examination of true color images.
Sep. 30	Lecture 8.	Applications of passive remote sensing using extinction and scattering: Remote sensing of aerosol in the visible and near-IR.
Oct. 2	Lab. 6	Passive remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols.
Oct. 7	Lecture 9.	Review for mid-term exam 1
Oct. 9		Mid-term exam 1.
Oct. 14		Fall break
Oct. 16	Lecture 10.	Applications of passive remote sensing using extinction and scattering: Remote sensing of trace gases (ozone) and aerosols in the UV region.
Oct. 21	Lecture 11.	Principles of passive remote sensing using emission and applications: Remote sensing of atmospheric path-integrated quantities (cloud liquid content and precipitable water vapor).
Oct. 23	Lab. 7	Passive microwave remote sensing: retrievals of total precipitable water and cloud liquid water.
Oct. 28	Lecture 12.	Applications of passive remote sensing using emission: Remote sensing of SST. Principles of sounding by emission and applications.
Oct. 30	Lab. 8	Applications of passive remote sensing using emission: Sounding of atmospheric temperature. Retrievals of SST.
Nov. 4	Lecture 13.	Applications of passive remote sensing: Remote sensing of precipitation and clouds.
Nov. 6	Lab. 9	Applications of passive remote sensing: Sensing of clouds.
Nov. 11	Lecture 14.	Principles of active remote sensing: Radar. Sensing of clouds and precipitation.
Nov. 12	Lab. 10	Radar remote sensing of precipitation
Nov. 18	Lecture 15.	Principles of active remote sensing: Lidar sensing of aerosols, gases and clouds.
Nov. 20	Lab. 11	Lidar remote sensing. CALIPSO and CloudSat cloud products.
Nov. 25	Lecture 16.	Review for mid-term exam 2. Lecture notes
Dec. 2	Lecture 17.	Course Summary: remote sensing applications, principles and techniques for studying the atmosphere and oceans. Lecture notes

Supplement Materials

NASA Earth System Science:

Class Research Project:

Guideline