VIS

Aerosol optical thickness

Attributes

float | continuous | dynamic | unit-less | basic

Description

The variable VIS (dimension-less) defines the column-integrated value of the vertical aerosol extinction coefficient at 550 nm. Typical worldwide and annual aerosol optical thickness values for satellite observations range from 0.05 to 0.4, with extreme values of 0 (no aerosols) to 1 and typical mean values around 0.12 (default value).

This variable controls the strength of the absorption and scattering effects caused by aerosols.