Comprehensive Remote Sensing, Volume 7:Atmosphere

Earth’s atmosphere comprises layers of gases and dust and plays a major role in sustaining life on the planet by creating adequate pressure allowing liquid water to exist, warming surface through greenhouse gases and balancing diurnal temperature extremes. Presence of clouds changes the radiation budget of Earth’s atmosphere. Observations from spacebased satellites play a key role in global monitoring of atmospheric phenomena such as cyclones, extreme rainfall events (EREs), concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other pollutants, etc. Recently, assimilation of satellite data in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models has shown immense potential for improving forecasts.