Note: Front cover -- Half title -- Full title -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- Contributors -- Chapter 1 - Composition and thermal structure of the earth's atmosphere -- 1.1 Atmosphere -- 1.2 Vertical temperature structure and nomenclature of the earth's atmosphere -- 1.2.1 Troposphere -- 1.2.2 Stratosphere -- 1.2.3 Mesosphere -- 1.2.4 Thermosphere -- 1.3 Basics climatology of tropospheric and stratospheric region and inter-hemispheric coupling -- 1.3.1 Hadley cell -- 1.3.2 Ferrel cell -- 1.3.3 Polar cell -- 1.4 Vertical variation of atmospheric temperature in the troposphere -- 1.5 Seasonal variation of tropospheric and stratospheric temperature in the equatorial regions (5° N-5° S) -- 1.6 Interannual variation of tropospheric and stratospheric temperature and its linkage with QBO and ENSO -- 1.7 Global positioning system (GPS) and radio occultation (RO) technique for the temperature observation -- 1.8 Conclusion -- Data availability statement -- References -- Chapter 2 - Retrieval of aerosol optical depth from satellite observations: Accuracy assessment, limitations, and usage re ... -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Aerosol optical properties -- 2.3 Satellite-based remote sensing instruments for aerosol monitoring -- 2.4 Satellite-based aerosol retrieval algorithms -- 2.4.1 Overview of operational retrieval algorithms -- 2.4.1.1 Dark Target (DT) algorithm -- 2.4.1.2 Deep Blue (DB) algorithm -- 2.4.1.3 Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) -- 2.4.1.4 MISR aerosol retrieval algorithm -- 2.4.1.5 OMI aerosol retrieval algorithm -- 2.4.2 Uncertainty evaluation of aerosol retrieval products -- 2.5 Case study of AOD retrieval and accuracy assessment over South Asia (SA) -- 2.6 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 3 - Global Navigation Satellite Systems and their applications in remote sensing of atmosphere. , 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Performance of the GNSS -- 3.3 Technical concepts of GPS -- 3.3.1 The space segment -- 3.3.2 The control segment -- 3.3.3 The user segment -- 3.4 Receivers and GPS antenna -- 3.5 GNSS limitations -- 3.6 GPS/GNSS meteorology -- 3.7 Estimating ZWD and water vapor using GNSS -- 3.8 Summary -- References -- Chapter 4 - Estimation of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) from GNSS observations -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.1.2 Ionospheric layers -- 4.1.3 Ionosphere and its effects on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) -- 4.2 Estimation of ionospheric total electron content -- 4.2.1 TEC calculation from GPS observations -- 4.2.2 Cycle slip correction -- 4.2.3 TEC leveling -- 4.2.4 Vertical TEC conversion -- 4.2.5 Receiver and satellite differential code biases (DCBs) -- 4.3 Summary -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Chapter 5 - Remote sensing data extraction and inversion techniques: A review -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Remote sensing data extraction -- 5.2.1 Classification -- 5.3 Supervised classification -- 5.3.1 Minimum-distance-to-mean classifier -- 5.3.2 Parallelepiped classifier -- 5.3.3 Maximum likelihood classifier -- 5.4 Unsupervised classification -- 5.4.1 K-mean -- 5.4.2 ISODATA -- 5.5 Hybrid classification and artificial neural networks (ANNs) -- 5.6 Elements of visual image interpretation -- 5.7 Band/spectral rationing -- 5.8 Principal component analysis (PCA) -- 5.9 Normalized difference index -- 5.10 File format -- 5.11 Geometric correction -- 5.12 Radiometric correction -- 5.13 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 6 - Appraisal of radiative transfer model 6SV for atmospheric correction of multispectral satellite image towards ... -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Study area -- 6.3 Datasets and methodology -- 6.3.1 Landsat 8. , 6.3.2 Second simulation of satellite signal in the solar spectrum-vector (6SV) -- 6.3.3 Normalized difference vegetation index -- 6.3.4 Land surface temperature retrieval -- 6.3.5 Performance analysis -- 6.4 Result and discussions -- 6.4.1 6SV output for atmospheric correction -- 6.4.2 LST retrieval using Landsat 8 OLI -- 6.5 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 7 - Spatio-temporal variation of biomass burning fires over Indian region using satellite data -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Datasets and methodology -- 7.3 Results -- 7.3.1 Spatial and seasonal variation of fire points over India -- 7.3.2 Inter annual variations of active fire occurrences -- 7.3.3 State level analysis of fire counts over Indian region -- 7.3.4 Identification of fire hotspot regions -- 7.4 Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Chapter 8 - Identification of different aerosol types over a semi-arid location in southern peninsular India retrieved fro ... -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Instrument and observational site -- 8.2.1 CALIPSO -- 8.2.2 HYSPLIT, MERRA-2 winds, and MODIS fire counts -- 8.2.3 Observational site -- 8.3 Results and discussion -- 8.3.1 Intra-season variability in tropospheric columnar aerosol optical depth -- 8.3.2 Seasonal variation of different aerosol subtypes -- 8.3.3 Percentage contribution of aerosol top layer heights -- 8.3.4 Intra-seasonal variation of the aerosol extinction coefficient -- 8.3.5 Types of air masses and their effects on aerosol characteristics -- 8.3.6 Fire count and MERRA-2 winds for source identification -- 8.4 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 9 - Remote Sensing of Cloudiness: Challenges and Way Forward -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.2 Comparative assessment of CF datasets -- 9.2.1 Resolution effect -- 9.2.2 View-angle effect -- 9.2.3 Climatology of height-stratified CF. , 9.2.4 Diurnal cycle of CF -- 9.3 Summary -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Chapter 10 - Overview of aerosol-cloud interactions over Indian summer monsoon region using remote sensing observations -- 10.1 Climatic effects of atmospheric aerosols -- 10.2 Aerosol-cloud interaction studies over the Indian subcontinent -- 10.3 Indian summer monsoon season -- 10.4 Cloud radiative forcing over the Indian summer monsoon region -- 10.5 Physical mechanisms of aerosol-induced changes in cloud radiative effects -- 10.6 Critical knowledge gaps and recommendations -- References -- Chapter 11 - Aerosol loading over the Northern Indian Ocean using space-borne measurements -- 11.1 Introduction -- 11.2 Space-borne observation of aerosols and their transportation -- 11.2.1 Moderate resolution imaging spectro-radiometer (MODIS) -- 11.2.2 Ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) -- 11.2.3 Cloud-Aerosol Lidar Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) -- 11.3 Spatio-temporal variation of aerosol over the Northern Indian Ocean -- 11.4 Vertical distribution and subtypes of atmospheric aerosol over the Northern Indian Ocean -- 11.5 Long-range transportation of atmospheric aerosol over the Northern Indian Ocean -- 11.6 Summary -- Acknowledgement -- References -- Chapter 12 - Balloon-Based Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere -- 12.1 Introduction -- 12.2 Balloon platforms for atmospheric measurements -- 12.2.1 Types of balloon sounding -- 12.3 Different scientific balloon systems and their use -- 12.3.1 Open zero-pressure balloons -- 12.3.2 Light, small, zero-pressure balloons -- 12.3.3 Tethered balloons -- 12.3.4 Super-pressure balloons -- 12.3.5 Ultra-long-duration balloons (ULDB) -- 12.3.6 Infra-red montgolfier (MIR) -- 12.4 Balloon-borne campaigns to study atmosphere -- 12.4.1 Description of the BATAL campaigns. , 12.4.2 Types of balloon flight use in BATAL campaign -- 12.4.3 Ground-based and modeling support -- 12.4.4 Findings of BATAL campaign -- 12.5 Summary and conclusion -- References -- Chapter 13 - Vertical distribution of atmospheric brown clouds using Lidar remote sensing over Indian region -- 13.1 Introduction -- 13.2 Theoretical background of light detection and ranging -- 13.3 Vertical distribution of ABCs over India -- 13.4 Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 14 - Application of remote sensing to study forest fires -- 14.1 Introduction -- 14.2 Evolution of fire detection techniques -- 14.3 Remote sensing -- 14.3.1 Thermal remote sensing -- 14.4 Satellites and sensors for forest fire applications -- 14.4.1 Landsat -- 14.4.2 Sentinel-2 -- 14.4.3 Sentinel-3 -- 14.4.4 Vegetation-based fire applications -- 14.4.5 MODIS -- 14.4.6 Visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) -- 14.4.7 Soil moisture active passive (SMAP) -- 14.4.8 EO-1 hyperion -- 14.4.9 Advanced very high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) -- 14.5 Ground-based fire monitoring system -- 14.6 Fire assessment -- 14.7 Burnt area and burn severity mapping (postfire) -- 14.8 Mapping postfire vegetative growth -- 14.9 Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Chapter 15 - Study of the atmospheric and ionospheric phenomenon using GPS-based remote sensing technique -- 15.1 Introduction to global positioning system -- 15.1.1 Error sources in GPS signals -- 15.1.2 Total electron content and water vapor measurements using GPS -- 15.2 Study of ionospheric phenomena using GPS -- 15.2.1 Response to space weather -- 15.2.2 Solar flares (SFs) -- 15.2.3 Response to solar eclipse -- 15.2.4 Response to earthquakes -- 15.2.5 Response to thunderstorms -- 15.2.6 Response to cyclones -- 15.3 Study of atmospheric phenomena using GPS -- 15.4 Summary. , Acknowledgments.