Simulations of time-coincident, co-located measurements from ENVISAT-1 instruments for the characterization of tropospheric aerosols: a sensitivity study including cloud contamination effects

A sensitivity test of the aerosol properties retrieval is conducted using nadir viewing instruments on board the ENVISAT- 1 platform trying to reproduce the natural variability of the aerosol ®eld. The analysis highlights problems arising in the retrieval when aerosol loading, relative humidity, and cloud coverage are simultaneously varied.