Exploring Atmospheric Aerosols by Twilight Photometry

The instrument twilight photometer was designed, developed, and installed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India (18°43′N, 73°51′E), to monitor the vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosols. The instrument, based on passive remote sensing technique, is simple and inexpensive. It is operated only during twilights, and the method of retrieval of aerosol profile is based on a simple twilight technique. It functions at a single wavelength (660 nm), and a photomultiplier tube is used as a detector. The amplifier, an important component of the system, was designed and developed by connecting 10 single integrated-circuit (IC) amplifiers in parallel so that the noise at the output is drastically reduced and the sensitivity of the system has been increased. As a result, the vertical profiles are retrieved to a maximum of 120 km. A brief description of the basic principle of twilight technique, the experimental setup, and the method of retrieval of aerosol profiles using the above photometer are detailed in this paper.