Parameterization of aerosol and cirrus cloud effects on reflected sunlight spectra measured from space: application of the equivalence theorem.

An original methodology to account for aerosol and cirrus cloud contributions to reflected sunlight is described. This method can be applied to the problem of retrieving greenhouse gases from satellite-observed data and is based on the equivalence theorem with further parameterization of the photon path-length probability density function (PPDF). Monte Carlo simulation was used to validate this parameterization for a vertically nonhomogeneous atmosphere including an aerosol layer and cirrus clouds.